Emma Elliott may have been raised on hockey, but she found her love in basketball.
 
And the Winnipeg Wesmen are glad she did.
 
Elliott, a 5-foot-9 guard from College Jeanne-Sauve and one of the top graduating players in the province, has committed to Alyssa Cox's 2026 Wesmen women's basketball recruiting class, joining Ava Shaw, Emma Yard and Ella Castres among the players who have pledged commitment to UWinnipeg for next season. 
 
Like many Canadian youth, Elliott started in hockey. But it wasn't long before she found basketball — and found out she was pretty good at it, too. 
 
"I really didn't start basketball until end of grade seven or even eight," she said. 
 
"That was probably the reason I stayed with basketball — like, I found I was pretty good at it. So then I just kept going with it, and then grade nine, that's when I really wanted to make it my sport and try to go further in it."
 
And Elliott has done plenty in that short time. She has experience in the Basketball Manitoba provincial program having played on the 15U squad and, most recently, the 17U squad that competed at the Canada Summer Games in 2025 where she averaged over 10 points a game, including a tournament-high 17 in a pool-play game against Saskatchewan. 
 
In Grade 10, she was named a recipient of the Sport Manitoba Women to Watch grant and, a few months later, was named a tournament all-star as she helped her Olympiens to a Final Four berth at the AAAA JV provincial tournament. 
 
Last season, as a Grade 11, she was ranked No. 10 in the Winnipeg Free Press' annual coaches poll of the top players in the province, a survey that also ranked three current Wesmen among the best. 
 
Elliott is excited to join a young Wesmen team that has players she's already well familiar with, as well as a recruiting class that is deep with local talent. 
 
"I think everything kind of just lined up," she said. "I think play-wise, I think they play very fast and in transition, and that's kind of exactly how I like to play. And then Alyssa has been great, and she made the process very easy. The team culture is really strong there. We've got a pretty young group and I think we have a very strong recruiting class coming in so that definitely helped the decision."
 
Elliott said Cox was the first coach to reach out here to begin the recruiting process and the fourth-year head coach made her a focal point of this class. 
 
"Emma is a smart, hard-working student-athlete who will be a great addition to our team and culture," Cox said. "She brings a high level of focus and commitment to everything she does, on and off the court. Offensively, she is very versatile, always moving and cutting with purpose to finish plays around the rim. On the defensive end, she is a reliable on and off-ball defender who anticipates well on gaps and rebounds. She's the type of player who understands how to impact the game in multiple ways."