VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds closed out their 2012 schedule with a commanding 74-57 win over the Lethbridge Pronghorns. They are now 7-3 and head into an extended break in the regular season on a three game win streak.
BOX SCORE
Kris Young (North Vancouver, BC) had a game-high 22 points, and
Maggie Sundberg (Mansfield, CT) and
Leigh Stansfield (Victoria, BC) also scored in double digits, adding 12 points apiece.
Adrienne Parkin (Vancouver, BC) narrowly missed a double-double. She grabbed 10 boards and finished with nine points on 4 of 7 shooting.
Erin Skippon (Manotick, BC) led the Horns with 14 points, all in the first half. Stephanie Inman (Calgary, AB) added 10, while Kim Veldmen (Lethbridge, AB) nabbed nine boards.
Down by a point after the first quarter, the Thunderbirds stormed to a 15-3 run to start the second. They made some defensive adjustments and shot 60% in the first half, opening up a gap that the Horns would never recover from. A 39-31 halftime lead grew by two points in the third, but the fourth quarter was all UBC. The Thunderbirds held the Horns to a 37.5 shooting percentage on the night while making 51.8% of their own attempts.
Head coach
Deb Huband explained that with only seeing the Pronghorns once this year, and in the second half of a weekend split no less, it's hard to know them as well as they'd like to. “I think we were able to learn a lot about them with what they were doing in the first quarter and we were able to make some adjustments defensively and that was the big thing,” she said.
Once they got familiar with the Horns offensive sets and saw that Skippon was really stepping up for them, the Thunderbirds were able to make changes that took away her effectiveness and prevented her from scoring at all in the second half. While Huband said that part of UBC's defensive scheme is “trying to take players away from their tendencies so that they can't do their favourite things,” she also thinks it was an overall defensive mentally that changed the game for her team tonight.
“There's two pieces. I thought we did a good job adjusting both on her and defending their sets a bit better.”
The Thunderbirds looked strong as a unit tonight, but individually
Kris Young stood out once again. She came close to a triple-double in the end, chipping in eight assists and grabbing eight boards to go along with her 22 points. She's having an MVP-like season and while these numbers are impressive, what's more amazing is that they are becoming the norm for the third-year guard. Consistently getting the job done in all aspects of the game, Young says she is playing with much more confidence this year thanks to her teammates. “I think my teammates have more confidence in giving me the ball. So they get me opportunities to score and I couldn't get those without them. With their confidence I play more confident and do better,” said Young.
“We have a younger team so I'm one of the older players, so I think I have to take on a bigger load. I know that I have to do more so that's what I'm trying to do and it's going well so far,” she added.
Young and the Thunderbirds will take a brief rest during the exam period, but will be in action over the holidays, playing a Christmas tournament in Calgary. Their next regular season game isn't until they pay the Manitoba Bisons a visit on January 11th. Tip-off will be at 4 p.m. Pacific and the game will be streamed live at
www.canadawest.tv.
