VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds women's basketball team (19-9, 15-4) came from behind with a vengeance on Friday night, orchestrating a 17-0 fourth-quarter run to upend the Trinity Western Spartans (12-7, 12-7) 67-58 at the Langley Events Centre.
  
UBC guard Maddison Penn scored eight of her game-high 18 points in the final frame, as the visiting T-Birds outscored Trinity Western 21-11 in the final 10 minutes. Forward Kara Spotton was a two-way force, picking up 15 points and 10 boards in a double-double effort.
 
The Thunderbirds and Spartans traded periods of dominance in the contest - TWU outscored the T-Birds 40-27 in the middle stanzas, but UBC outscored the Spartans 40-18 in the opening and closing frames.


 
Tessa Ratzlaff (Abbotsford, B.C.) had a career-high 15 rebounds and a team-high 17 points for TWU, while Jessie Brown (Langley) had 13 points.

UBC finished the game shooting 40% (24-of-60), while the Spartans knocked down 32.4% (23-of-71) of their attempts from the field. The T-Birds were 17 for 24 from the free throw line, while the Spartans knocked down six on just seven opportunities.

WHAT A GAME. Back and forth! @TWUSpartans: 58@UBCWBBall: 67
|FINAL| #WBB ????????

— LangleyEventsCentre (@LangleyEvents) February 11, 2017

 
The T-Birds were the better side in the first quarter as they shot 42.9 per cent from the field, while holding the Spartans to just 16.7 per cent. While TWU out-rebounded UBC 14-9, including seven on the offensive glass, UBC was a perfect seven for seven from the free throw line, cruising to a 19-7 lead through 10 minutes. Penn led UBC with seven points.
 
The Spartans found their rhythm in the second quarter, shooting 46.7 per cent, to outscore UBC 15-12 and close the T-Birds lead to nine points, 31-22, at halftime. Ratzlaff had 12 points in the quarter to lead TWU at the break.


 
TWU caught fire in the third quarter, going on a 16-2 run, to erase the T-Birds advantage and take a 44-39 lead. The T-Birds closed the gap to one point with a jumper at the horn that sent the teams to the fourth quarter with TWU up 47-46. Brown had 10 points in the quarter and Natalie Carkner added six points. Spotton and Penn had four points each for UBC.
 
With UBC trailing 55-50 in the fourth quarter, the visitors came to life. A Krysten Lindquist lay-up sparked a 17-0 T-Birds run that put UBC in full control. The T-Birds shot 57.1 per cent in the fourth quarter while TWU was just 19 per cent from the field.
  
The teams meet again tomorrow night at 5:00 p.m. (PT), again at the Langley Events Centre.