The University of British Columbia Athletics

VANCOUVER - The No. 9 UBC Thunderbirds are rested up from their bye week and ready to get the playoffs underway, which they will do this weekend with a best-of-three Canada West quarter-final series at War Memorial Gym against the No. 6 Saskatchewan Huskies.

TICKETS
 
GAME TIMES (all times Pacific)
Friday, Feb. 28 - 7 p.m.
Saturday, March 1 - 5 p.m.
Sunday, March 2 (if necessary) - 2 p.m.

The Huskies (17-5) actually finished with a better regular season record than the T-Birds (16-6), but they ended things on a bit of a skid, losing three of their last four games. That left them in third place in the Prairie Division behind Alberta and Regina, while UBC finished the regular season winning nine of their last 10 to take second place in the Pacific.
 
That strong run to finish the regular season has already paid off for the 'Birds, as it allowed them to leap over Victoria in the standings to grab home court and force the Vikes to hit the road last week for their quarter-final series, which they lost in Regina, ending their season.
 
The one meeting between UBC and Saskatchewan this regular season was a nail-biter that the Huskies won in Vancouver 55-53. The 'Birds entered the fourth quarter trailing by just a point before falling as far back as 10 points. Then they mounted a furious comeback over the last three and a half minutes that got them back to within a possession of the lead, only to fall just short at the buzzer.
 
You probably guessed from the final score that neither team shot the ball particularly well, which is true. Both offences were around the 35 per cent mark from the field, which is well below their season averages. They were also playing on the second night of a back-to-back after both sides had a tough game the night before.
 
Saskatchewan and UBC rank second and third in the conference with their team field goal percentages at .432 and .416 respectively, and defensively they both rank in the middle of the pack, so with both teams bringing fresh legs to the fight coming off bye weeks, the offence should flow a little more freely this weekend.
 
One issue the T-Birds might struggle with in this series is their relatively limited range offensively. The 'Birds do have a number of players with three-point range, but none who shoot much better than league-average from three. As a team, they rank ninth in Canada West three point efficiency.
 
Usually the combo of Kris Young and Harleen Sidhu is more than dangerous enough from mid and short range to rack up the points, averaging 17.6 and 15.6 points per game respectively. Case in point was their final regular season game against Victoria, in which Young and Sidhu combined for 50 points, 44 of which came inside the arc. But with Saskatchewan's low post nightmare Dalyce Emmerson lurking around the basket this weekend, nothing will come easy from in close.
 
Emmerson leads the league by a mile with 3.3 blocks per game and 11.6 rebounds per game. Second place in those categories is 1.7 blocks and 9.8 rebounds. At 6-foot-3, she has the size to prevent people from slashing to the rim and to clean the glass afterwards too, so creating and hitting good perimeter shots will be especially important for the 'Birds in this series.
 
That will put a little more pressure on UBC guards Maggie Sundberg and Cassandra Knievel, both of whom are essentially three-point specialists when it comes to scoring. Knievel in particular has proven to be a streaky shooter from long range, but she's also fearless, so the 'Birds will be hoping she can heat up and keep the Huskies honest defensively by stretching them out to the arc.
 
Emmerson also happens to be second in league scoring (19.2 ppg) and in field goal percentage (.601) so she will be just as much of a headache at the other end of the floor, where it will likely be up to Sidhu and Adrienne Parkin to slow her down. As for perimeter scoring, the Huskies aren't setting the world on fire either, but they do knock down more threes than the T-Birds, led by fifth-year shooting guard Kiera Lyons, who averages 12.6 points while shooting .351 from three.