VANCOUVER - A stellar second half by Canada West scoring leader
Kris Young and a strong performance by the bench helped the UBC Thunderbirds start 2012 off right, overcoming a rough second quarter to grab a 73-69 win over the Alberta Pandas at War Memorial Gym on Friday.
After not taking a shot for the entire first half and playing just five minutes due to foul trouble, Young went 7-for-12 from the field in the second to lead all scorers with 19 points. The 'Birds also got 18 points and some big minutes from the bench, including a solid eight point, six rebound performance from
Victoria Spangehl.
"It's a tough situation for a player to sit that long, and then come in and play like she did in the second half," UBC head coach
Deb Huband said of Young. "We got off to a great start in the third and she really helped us on the floor. This was probably also one of our best bench performances in a while where we were able to get what we needed from people when they came in, and they gave us great minutes and production."
Unsurprisingly in a battle of two of the conference's best defensive squads, points were hard to come by early on. The defences set the tone out of the gate as the sides combined for just 22 first quarter points.
Early foul trouble for Young forced her to sit out the entire second quarter, and the Pandas took advantage. They forced nine UBC turnovers in the frame and outscored UBC 23-10 to take a lead into halftime.
But Young and Spanghel sparked an 11-2 run in the third quarter with four points each to tie the game at 40, and it was all T-Birds from there. After shooting just 34 per cent in the first, the 'Birds were 47 per cent from the field in the second half, compared to 21 per cent for the Pandas.
"We'd like to play a tempo game where we can generate offence from our defence and I think we struggled a bit with the pressure in our press break," said Huband. "We didn't get to run as much as we wanted and the tempo didn't favour us in the second quarter, and that was something we addressed in the locker room."
Young also added five rebounds to her game-high 19 points in just 23 minutes of action.
Zara Huntley led all players with nine rebounds while chipping in 14 points and three blocks.
Leigh Stansfield, one of the conference block leaders along with Huntley, also rejected two shots and grabbed six boards in limited but effective minutes in the post.
Sally Hillier was the only Panda still scoring efficiently in the second half. She scored 14 of her team-high 17 points in the fourth quarter, and tied for the team rebounding lead with six. Nicole Clarke had 15 points in the loss for Alberta.
The Pandas fall to 6-3 on the season with their third straight loss, and will be in Victoria to take on the Vikes tomorrow.
UBC keeps hold of first place in the West Division at 5-2 with the win, and will look to keep building on that lead tomorrow when Saskatchewan comes to War Memorial at 5 p.m.
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