CALGARY – The No. 2 UBC Thunderbirds fought valiantly but couldn't bring the Bronze Baby back to B.C., as they lost 69-53 to the No. 3 Windsor Lancers in the championship game of the CIS women's basketball Final 8 at the Jack Simpson Gymnasium in Calgary on Monday night.
BOXSCORE
Leading by just four points entering the fourth quarter, Windsor outscored UBC 18-6 in the final period to pull away.
Windsor, playing in the CIS final for the third year in a row, successfully defends the CIS championship it won last season at home.
"We struggled particularly in the fourth quarter," said UBC head coach
Deb Huband. "I think we panicked as a group and didn't execute very well offensively and couldn't put very many points up. I thought we did a pretty good job defending, once we stopped taking away the three ball. But we just didn't execute very well offensively and a lot of that is credit to their defence, they put a lot of pressure on us and they battled hard as well."
UBC battled the bigger and more physical Windsor team that established its offence early. The Lancers jumped out to a 4-0 lead and scored the final five points of the opening quarter to open up a 20-12 advantage after a period.
Layups from
Kris Young and
Zara Huntley got the T-Birds to within four to start the second quarter, but then over the next 7:17, UBC managed just one field goal, a three-pointer from
Kristen Hughes, to fall behind 35-22.
That long drought was finally broken when
Adrienne Parkin drove the lane and scored a layup to ignite UBC's comeback.
Parkin's bucket started a 17-5 run that bridged halftime to get UBC to within a point 40-39 at 5:55 of the third quarter. The run was capped off by a
Leigh Stansfield bucket, where she faked out Windsor's Jessica Clémençon to score and to draw a foul. Stansfield made the ensuing free throw.
UBC stayed close down the stretch of the third quarter but could never overtake the Lancers. In fact, the Thunderbirds never led in the game and were tied just twice early on, at 4-4 and 6-6.
Huntley's layup with 8:52 to go in the fourth quarter closed the deficit to four points but that was as close as the Thunderbirds would get as a 12-2 run in the final period clinched the CIS title for the Lancers.
Young led UBC with 16 points and eight rebounds, while Huntley recorded 13 points and seven boards in her final game as a Thunderbird.
UBC's other fifth-year senior,
Alex Vieweg, chipped in with 11 points.
"We got really stagnant and couldn't get a shot to fall," said Vieweg. "We tried to take some early threes at the end to get shots up with time running down but we took unbalanced shots and just got unlucky."
Windsor's Miah-Marie Langlois, who was named the CIS Final 8 Most Valuable Player for the second year in a row, led her team with 17 points, ten rebounds and six assists.
UBC made 21 of 60 shots from the field, struggling from the three-point line, converting on just one of 11 chances from beyond the arc.
Windsor shot 41.7 percent and ended the game with a 41-34 advantage in rebounds. The Lancers also outscored UBC 12-3 in bench points.
Young was named to the CIS Final 8 First All-Star team for her performance, after averaging 13.3 points, 8.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists over three games.
"It's a little bit of a letdown now but I think when we look back at it, we're going to be pretty proud of ourselves," said Young after the game. "You never forget the pain of losing a game like that. I'm going to carry that throughout my entire career, I'm not going to forget it but I also see my seniors and how sad it is for them in their last game so I don't want any of my years to end up like that so I'm going to carry it out."
UBC finishes the season with a CIS silver medal, a Canada West championship and an overall record of 28-6.
"I think we all just wanted to get together as a team and do a cheer and give each other a big hug," said Vieweg of the end of the game. "I know the girls wanted to do it for me and Zara as well but I don't want them to be sorry. I think we worked hard and had an unbelievable season."
Vieweg and Huntley both graduate from the program with one national title each, won in 2008. It was the last time UBC won the Bronze Baby. The team will return three starters for next season as it tries to recapture the top prize in Canadian university women's basketball.
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