The Thunderbirds picked up two tough wins at home over Alberta and Saskatchewan last week, and now the Pacific Division-leading 'Birds have their sights set on Thompson Rivers. They will take on the WolfPack on the road this Friday, Jan 13 at 6 p.m. and Saturday, Jan 14 at 5 p.m.
Both games will be webcast on
CanadaWest.tv
GAME TIMES
Fri., Jan. 13 - No. 3 UBC at Thompson Rivers (6 p.m. at the TRU Gymnasium, Kamloops)
Sat., Jan 14 - No. 3 UBC at Thompson Rivers (5 p.m. at the TRU Gymnasium, Kamloops)
No. 3 UBC Thunderbirds
2011 conference record: 6-2 (1st, Pacific Division)
2011 CIS ranking: 3
Last week: beat Alberta 73-69, beat Saskatchewan 76-64
Streak: 2 wins
Last Friday against Alberta, Canada West scoring leader
Kris Young was restricted to the bench and held scoreless for the first half because of early foul trouble, but that didn't stop her from dropping 19 points in the second half to lead all scorers and help her side overcome a brutal second quarter to beat the dangerous Pandas.
On Saturday it was point guard
Kristen Hughes' time to shine. She was deadly from three-point range and led all scorers with 18 points while adding six assists. Hughes is fourt in league assist-to-turnover ratio and fifth in three-pointers made.
Young scored just 10 against Saskatchewan and lost her lead in the scoring race to TRU's Diane Schuetze, but don't be surprised if the sophomore guard is able to make up those six-tenths of a point this weekend - and then some. She has shown explosive scoring ability all season on .521 shooting, and remains a very strong consistent defender on the perimeter too.
Zara Huntley and
Leigh Stansfield are still one-two atop the conference blocks leaderboard, and the T-Birds will need both to be at their best this weekend as they go up against the 6"3 Schuetze in the post.
Thompson Rivers WolfPack
2011 conference record: 5-5 (4th, Pacific Division)
2011 CIS ranking: -
Last week: beat
Winnipeg 84-61, beat Manitoba 67-49
Streak: 2 wins
After going 1-5 to head into the holiday break, the WolfPack got their season back on track with a convincing sweep against Manitoba and Winnipeg last year. They are still in a tough spot though, tied for the last Pacific Division playoff spot with Victoria, but without the tiebreaker since they were swept by Victoria earlier this year.
They have the second-highest scoring offence in the conference, and are a solid rebounding team, with a nod due to Schuetze in both those categories. In addition to leading the league in scoring with 19.6 points per game, she leads the conference with 10.3 rebounds.
She shoots a very low percentage from the field for a centre at .367, but is almost 80 per cent from the free throw line with a whopping 10.4 attempts per game - more than twice as many as any other player in the league. That means that for UBC, doing the work early by keeping her off the offensive glass and denying entry passes to her will be key to this series, as she is much less effective when forced to find her offence from the field.
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