VANCOUVER – It hasn't rained much in Vancouver lately, but on Friday night at War Memorial Gym the UBC Thunderbirds poured in the baskets as they cruised to a 78-39 victory over the Brandon Bobcats.
BOX SCORE
Kris Young (North Vancouver, BC) continued the all-round play that has put her atop the Canada West leaderboard this season. She had 16 points and eight boards as well as three steals.
Alyssa Binns (Port Moody, BC) came off the bench and added a career-high 14 points on 5-7 shooting, while starting shooting guard
Cassandra Knievel (Nanaimo, BC) chipped in with 10 points to go along with her team-high four assists.
WBB: T-Birds v. Brandon (Jan. 18, 2013) Gallery
Brandon momentarily held a 4-2 lead about a minute in, but that was as close as they would come tonight. UBC made six three-balls in the first quarter alone. Binns and Knievel had hot hands early on, hitting three and two buckets from downtown respectively to lead the Thunderbirds to a 29-6 advantage after ten minutes.
“The girls set really hard screens tonight and got me wide open so I had a lot of time and space to shoot,” said Binns. “As long as the girls keep doing that and as long as we keep scoring on the inside it opens everything up for us on the outside. Our inside-outside ball movement was working really well tonight,” she added.
While their scoring pace did slow down somewhat, the Thunderbirds used a heavy rebounding edge and took advantage of the Bobcats' frequent turnovers to take a 43-13 lead into halftime. It was 64-22 at the end of the third before the Bobcats got some momentum going and scored 17 points in the final frame. Third-year guard Carrera Lamoureux (Winnipeg, MB) drove the ball and got herself to the line. She scored seven points in the fourth quarter and finished with a team-high ten points.
Brandon finished the night without a single offensive rebound.
With the game clearly in their control, head coach
Deb Huband was pleased to be able to give significant minutes to her bench players.
“We had a chance to get minutes for everybody and get everybody out there contributing. I think that's important for us for our development from here on. I was happy that we were able to hold the intensity and everybody was able to come in and contribute,” said the coach.
With more rookies and bench players out on the court tonight for significant stretches, Huband had Binns step out of her usual position as a shooting guard to lead the team from the point. Binns is familiar with the role and has been practicing as a point guard for a while now. In fact, when she played on the BC provincial team in high school, she played the position regularly.
“It's not my usual position anymore, but It feels good to be point guard, I don't mind it, and I enjoy the pressure,” Binns commented.
The third-year guard sees the floor well and is comfortable dribbling the ball. More importantly though, she has a great basketball IQ and understands her strengths and weakness as a player.
“I'm not this fast-paced, score like crazy, run around defender, but I feel like I'm more of calming force out there. That's way sometimes Deb puts me as the point guard just cause she knows I can calm things down, especially when we have some people coming off the bench and we just want to keep everything under control,” she explained.
Binns also pointed out that having their two's and three's be able to come back and handle the ball is part of UBC's offensive style. “It's the way we play too. We're trained that way so that whoever's there is there and it doesn't really matter.”
The young Thunderbirds are looking more and more cohesive and well-rounded with each passing game. With another game tomorrow night and a long stretch ahead to the playoffs, Huband wants to build as much depth as possible.
“Depth is really important and we want to build as much of it as we can because we're gonna need it towards the end of the season. Any time you don't have to ride your starters for 40 minutes, it's a great thing,” Huband added.
UBC will put their nine-game win streak (six in regular season play) to the test against the No. 2 Regina Cougars on Saturday night. The Cougars are 11-2 this season and were riding a double-digit win streak themselves until having it snapped by the Vikes Friday in Victoria. But Huband quickly pointed out that Cougars are ranked number two for a reason.
“They've got great experience with six players in their fourth or fifth years. The cycle of the team is a very deep one and a very experience one. They've got size, they've got shooters, they've got a dynamic American point guard. They're a good team, so our defence is going to have to be there.”
Tip-off is set for 5 p.m. at War Memorial Gym.
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