EDMONTON - The fourth seeded Alberta Pandas put together a strong effort in the second half en route to a 73-60 win on Saturday afternoon to sweep the UBC Thunderbirds in their best-of-three Canada West quarterfinal series at U of A's Main Gym.
UBC opened the contest with a blistering first quarter, taking a 25-14 lead after 10 minutes of play. The host Pandas began to wake up in the second quarter and cut the deficit to 38-32 at the half before out scoring UBC 41-22 over the final 20 minutes to seal their ticket to the Canada West Final Four next weekend.
"We came out of the gates very strong. It was a dominant first quarter. We got hit with some foul trouble in the second and with Leigh [Stansfield] out with an injury from last night, we didn't have much size off the bench. That said, I think our bench did a great job coming in and playing some extended minutes in the second and third quarters," said UBC head coach
Deb Huband.
Despite the loss, UBC's season is not necessarily over. The new CIS championship format for women's basketball sees five teams automatically qualify for the final 8 - four conference champions and host - with the other three spots going to the winners of three regional four-team tournaments.
Canada West will have a minimum of four teams in those regional tournaments - the three teams that don't win next weekend's final four and the highest ranked team to not make the event. As it stands right now UBC, who finished fifth in the CW league play, is in line for that non final four team berth assuming the top three CW seeds win their opening round playoff series this weekend.
"We'll be watching with great interest over the next few days. It's unsettling to not be in control of your future and having to rely on other teams but there is a solid chance our season will continue. It's important for us to get a bit of rest over the next few days and then refocus and move forward," added Huband.
On Friday afternoon, UBC struggled from the floor, shooting just 21-of-62 (33.9%) from the field.
Arianne Duchesne and
Lia St. Pierre led the T-Birds with 11 points apiece but UBC's top two scorers -
Zara Huntley and
Alex Vieweg - were limited all afternoon with foul trouble.
Kendra Asleson led the hosts with 13 points off the bench and was a perfect 4-for-4 from the floor. Anneka Bakker and Marisa Haylett each added 10 points for Alberta.
"After that good start, we just got outplayed," said Huband. "They had people stepping up and contributing all over the place. We just couldn't match them. We got frazzled offensively and stopped executing as a team but I think some of that was due to being tired and playing with a short bench."
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