In grade seven, current Saskatchewan Huskies guard Megan Ahlstrom helped teach Calgary native Emma Thompson how to play basketball in her driveway. It was the beginning of an impressive journey for the latter, who averaged a double-double in her senior year with Centennial High School while also being named team captain.

But despite her strong two-way game, Thompson didn't originally know if she wanted to play basketball after high school. Cue Nadine Blum, Thompson's coach who continues to come watch her games. She helped her navigate her post-secondary options, one of which was Manitoba.

After meeting with Bisons head coach Michele Sung and former co-head coach Randy Kusano, Thompson was hooked on becoming a member of the Herd.

"When I first met [Sung] and Randy, they were two of the nicest people. They were super welcoming so that was really exciting," she says.

"I came on a visit here and it was so fun. It kind of happened quickly. I remember being in grade 12 and really not knowing what I wanted to do, but I'm glad I made this decision."

Thompson found a role with the team right away, playing 21.2 minutes per game as a rookie while also finishing fifth on the team in points per game.

"Honestly I was so excited in my first year. I remember our first game we played Regina I think, and we got absolutely pumped. I was like oh my goodness because Regina at the time was very good. It just an adjustment. For me, the girls were a lot bigger so I obviously had to get a lot stronger."

Thompson noted that she was always a tall, lanky kid growing up, putting on roughly 20 pounds of muscle during her university career in order to win more of the one-on-one battles against bigger players.

As Thompson got older, her confidence also increased. She upped her points per game total to nine in year two and then 11.9 in year three — good for third on the team behind fellow out of town recruits Nicole Konieczny and Taylor Randall. Manitoba also returned to the playoffs in 2017-18 for the first time in nine years and repeated the feat a year ago.

With Konieczny now graduated however, Thompson is the lone fifth-year on the team this season, requiring her to take up a much larger leadership role. It's an area she says she's struggled with in the past, however Sung has taken notice of her dedication and desire to improve in that regard.

"She came into camp really fit and with a really good resolve of taking advantage of every practice. She's played hard every practice and has really led by example. That's been something that the younger athletes have fed off of."

It also helps that Thompson has Randall, a fourth-year guard and two-time conference all-star to lean on. The two are exceptionally close friends and are living together this year.

"Living together has been so awesome. We have a lot of fun. It's so nice just getting to live with your best friend and hang out every day. [Randall] is a great person. She's pretty quiet off the bat, but once you get to know her she's great."

She can just call me out off the court or on the court and I would do the same. It's kind of nice. If I'm in my head a little, she's just be like hey, you need to figure it out.  I appreciate that. I trust her judgement 100 percent."

On top of an increased leadership role in her final season, Thompson has also been working on the little intricacies of her performance, such as her defensive play. This increased two-way game was on full display in a season-opening sweep for Manitoba over UBCO, as Thompson had 12 rebounds — ten coming defensively — in the first contest and nine in the second, including the game-ending board in the final seconds with the Bisons up 60-59.

"She's done a great job of trying to build her game around stuff other than scoring," added Sung.

"I think it's something that she's kind of built her confidence around in the past, and she's really finding other ways to stay in the game mentally but also confidence-wise."