VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds survived turnover issues and some foul trouble to beat the Trinity Western Spartans 76-64 on Thursday night at War Memorial Gym an improve to 2-1 on the year.
A strong first quarter put the 'Birds up eight heading into the second, but the rest of the night was a different story for UBC head coach
Deb Huband's side.
With the Spartans threatening to fight back into the game late in the fourth,
Leigh Stansfield got a key steal under her own basket and finished the play at the offensive end with a free throw line jumper to put UBC up by 12. The Spartans never got closer than 10 points off the lead the rest of the way, but Huband knew the game shouldn't have been that close.
"Defensively at times we were solid but we broke down too much with individual discipline," Huband said. "Offensively we really lacked flow, and we stopped running and tightened up, and everything became that much harder. Fortunately we had a strong performance from some of our post players, but we have to be better offensively, moving the ball, sharing the ball and playing better as a team."
The T-Birds got big numbers from most of their starters, particularly forwards
Zara Huntley and
Alex Vieweg, who each had 18 points and combined for 17 rebounds. But UBC got just three points from the bench, compared to 17 for the Spartan reserves.
"We need to get more from our bench but I just think it was not our best performance from top to bottom," said Huband. "We weren't sharp, and we have to be a lot better in all facets of the game."
The 'Birds also committed 24 turnovers while forcing just 13, and were too foul-prone defensively according to Huband, which gave the Spartans 28 chances at the free throw line. More than a third of Trinity Western's points were from the charity stripe.
Sophomore guard
Kris Young added 15 points and eight rebounds for UBC.
Kristen Hughes chipped in 17 points.
Tiffany Olsen led the Spartans with 16 points. Emily Knauff had 13 and Sarah Cleveland scored 10, but the Spartans shot just 30 per cent from the floor.
The loss drops Trinity Western to 2-3 on the year.
The T-Birds and Spartans have Friday off before wrapping up the weekend set on Saturday at 5 p.m.
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