The University of British Columbia Athletics

VANCOUVER - UBC completed a successful first weekend back to competition with two back-to-back wins over the Mount Royal Cougars. Saturday's 67-59 victory moves the team to 9-5 for the season and sees them retain second spot in the Pacific Division.

BOX SCORE
 
The Thunderbirds went on a 7-0 scoring run halfway through the first quarter to lead 11-5 before Mount Royal took a timeout to stem the bleeding.  
 
The first quarter ended 19-15 and UBC led by a similar margin for most of the second, finishing the half strongly though with another 7-0 run to head into the break leading 42-29.
 
Both teams scored efficiently in the first half. UBC hit 17 of 32 attempts on 53 per cent and had much improved fortunes at the charity stripe, shooting 85.7 per cent for the night.  MRU found it far easier to break down UBC's defence and star players Jordan McLean and Alicia Tan were able to feature far more prominently than they had the night before.
 
UBC opened the lead to 16 points midway through the third quarter, and stretched it to a game-high 19 at the beginning of the fourth before the Cougars responded resiliently with a 13-0 run to leave the Thunderbirds with a nervy last few minutes to close out the game.
 
McLean finished with 17 points and led her team in rebounding with six boards, but that was still a long way off her league-leading number of 11.6 heading into this weekend. Tan also scored 17 points and scored well from long range, she went 3-for-4 from beyond the arc.
 
Kris Young top-scored for the 'Birds with 20 points and grabbed 11 boards, five assists and five steals on another excellent night in her final year. Harleen Sidhu went 8 of 12 from the floor and was perfect on three attempts from the line in one of her most efficient nights this season.
 
Just like last night UBC outrebounded the Cougars by a margin of 37-31 and had seven fewer turnovers, both numbers proved to be critical in determining the final score.
 
UBC next play Jan. 24-25 when they play host to the UNBC Timberwolves at the War Memorial Gym.