VANCOUVER - For their final regular season games of the year, the UBC Thunderbirds women's basketball team has a home-and-home series against bitter Pacific Division rivals Victoria. The two teams possess two of the four playoff spots in the division and both have the chance to secure the top position this weekend. If the 'Birds split or win this weekend's series they will host a home quarter-final against the third or fourth-ranked team in the Prairie Division.
The Thunderbirds will visit Vancouver Island on Friday for a 6 p.m. tipoff before returning home for a Saturday game at War Memorial Gym, which is scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday's game will be broadcast live on CiTR 101.9 FM.
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No. 10 UBC currently sits tied for first with Fraser Valley in the Pacific, a record of 15-5 for the season. Victoria sits one game back at 14-6.
The Vikes are an anomaly within the Canada West as they are one of the few teams that has performed far better away from home than they have in their own gym. Their record stands at just 5-5 in McKinnon Gym but an outstanding 9-1 on the road, the best record in the conference.
Victoria is coming off a heart-breaking loss to the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack on the second night of a back-to-back. That loss culminated a seven game win streak that stretched back to Jan. 17.
Last weekend's series against TRU also saw Jenna Bugiardini drop 33 points, becoming only the second Vikes player in the last decade to record that many points in a single game. Bugiardini has top-scored for the Vikes in four of their last five games, averaging 20.8 points in that span and 14.4 for the season.
Fourth-year guard Cassandra Goodis leads her team in both assists and steals and shoots at a very respectable clip from downtown (37.8 per cent). Her 5.4 assists per game are good for second in the Canada West as well as possessing the third best assist/turnover ratio in the conference.
UBC have no shortage of quality players within their own roster. Besides one of the most well-balanced benches in the league, they also have two scorers in the top 10 of the conference.
Kris Young (16.8 points per game) and
Harleen Sidhu (15.8 ppg) sit sixth and ninth respectively. Both of these fourth-year players had led UBC all season and as the oldest members of the team have had little say in the matter; but rather than shy from the challenge, they have both embraced it warmly.
Young and Sidhu have had to take on great defensive loads as well as their scoring duties in order for the team to have success. Young is second in the conference in steals, Sidhu is fourth in rebounding and both sit within the top 15 for blocks.
