VANCOUVER –
Kris Young and
Harleen Sidhu both surpassed the 20-point mark to lead the No. 9 UBC Thunderbirds to a 79-69 victory over the Victoria Vikes to clinch second place in the Canada West Pacific Division and home-court advantage in the quarter-finals of the league playoffs.
The T-Birds finish the regular season at 16-6 while the Vikes will place third in the division with a record of 15-7.
Young scored 30 points and 12 rebounds while Sidhu had 20 points and nine boards.
For the Vikes, Jessica Renfrew and Shaylyn Crisp had 15 points each while Jenny Lewis and Sarah Semeniuk chipped in with 12 and 10, respectively.
After Crisp gave Victoria a 65-62 lead with a three-point shot with 5:30 left in the game, UBC responded with two triples in succession, one from Young 24 seconds after Crisp's bucket and one from
Cassandra Knievel with 3:47 remaining, which gave the T-Birds a 68-65 advantage.
That lead held for nearly three minutes as neither team found success on the offensive end. With 55 seconds left on the game clock, Crisp grabbed a rebound off a UBC miss but T-Bird
Cherub Lum stole the ball from her and drew a foul. The first-year guard from Vancouver hit one of two foul shots to put her team up 69-65.
On the ensuing possession, Victoria's Jenna Bugiardini had an opportunity to make it a one-possession game but missed her jumper. Sidhu took the rebound and was fouled. Victoria head coach Dani Sinclair was assessed a technical foul after making it known she wasn't happy with the call. So with 32 seconds left, Sidhu hit three of four free throws to make it 72-65. UBC retained possession and Young was quickly fouled after the ball was in-bounded. She hit two more shots from the line to put the game out of reach.
The Thunderbirds outscored the Vikes 21-10 in the fourth quarter.
"We've been talking about defence and preaching defence all season and every season. We haven't been doing a tremendous job of being disciplined enough to take people away from their preferences but I thought at that point of the game, in particular, we really stepped up and got it done and we made scoring tough for Victoria and allowed us to come through with the win," UBC head coach
Deb Huband said about her team's defensive performance down the stretch.
"It was nice to see that when the game was on the line, we got the job done and earned the win."
The game was an exciting back-and-forth affair as the teams traded the lead 13 times and were tied on eight occasions.
In the first half, the squads continued their great shooting from last night's game on Vancouver Island. UBC was 21 of 36 from the field (58.3 per cent) in the first half while Victoria was 16 of 30 (53.3 per cent).
For the game, the T-Birds made 30 of their 64 shots (46.8 per cent). The Vikes finished 27 of 64 (42.2 per cent). Statistically, neither team held a huge advantage as UBC hit five triples while Victoria had six. The rebounding battle was 38-36 in favour of the home team.
UBC were down 19-18 at the end of the first quarter but went on a 12-2 run to open the second with Sidhu scoring eight of those 12 points. She and Young were spectacular for UBC as Young scored 13 points and grabbed five rebounds in the quarter while Sidhu had 10 points. The Vikes replied with a big run of their own before halftime. Crisp had eight points in a 10-2 run, that closed the visitors' deficit to 40-39, which grew to 45-41 by the break.
The victory means UBC will host a Canada West Quarter-Final series in two weeks' time against the Saskatchewan Huskies. Victoria will open the playoffs by traveling to Regina to face the Cougars.
At the end of the game, the members of UBC's 2003-04 CIS championship-winning team were honoured 10 years after they won the school's first national title in three decades.
"They're a special group," said Huband. "They're the team that made the push to get us to the next level, from being a good team to a great team and earn that national championship, the first one in 30 years. They're character people, quality players and a great, solid team, with a willingness to work hard to contribute to the team's success. It's so nice to see them again."
