LANGLEY, BC – The UBC Thunderbirds picked up the weekend sweep over the TWU Spartans, pulling away over the final three quarters for a 74-45 win in Langley.
The loss drops the Spartans record to 1-3 in Canada West this year, while the win improves UBC's record to 2-2.
The Spartans hung with UBC early on as the game had four lead changes in the opening quarter alone . But just after TWU's Karla Josefson hit a three-pointer to give the Spartans a 14-13 advantage, the game started creeping towards a UBC victory as UBC quickly replied with two points to take the lead that would take them to the final whistle.
While the score was still only 17-14 after the first quarter, the game turned in favour of UBC big time in the second frame as they dominated the post, with
Lia St. Pierre leading the way, and played sound defence en route to outscoring the Spartans 16-7 in the quarter and opening up a 33-21 halftime lead.
Unlike the first quarter when TWU was getting quality looks and successfully driving the lane, UBC did well to slow down TWU's quick break and forced the Spartans to put up undesirable shots, which led to a 20.3 shooting percentage from the field.
The T-Birds St. Pierre was the top scorer in the first half with 11 points, while teammate
Alex Vieweg led both teams with five rebounds. Defensively the Spartans did do well to limit
Zara Huntley, the Thunderbirds leading scorer last year, to just four points in the opening 20 minutes and nine overall.
In the third quarter, the play was much more like the second quarter than the first, as UBC furthered its lead to 55-36 and took complete control of the game.
In the final 10 minutes, UBC kept pushing offensively, outscoring TWU 19-9, as they wrapped up a strong road effort, sweeping the weekend series and getting its first and second wins of the season.
St. Pierre finished with a game-high 19 points while teammate
Devan Lisson had 14 points on the night. The T-Birds
Alex Vieweg had a game high nine rebounds.
The Spartans didn't have one player hit double-digits on the night three players finished with seven points in the loss.
GAME NOTES – Both teams hit five three-pointers with UBC going 5-for-14 and TWU going 5-for-13…After coming off the bench Friday, Strom led the Spartans with 30 minutes…UBC shot 34.7 per cent from the field.
