VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds women's basketball team is set to for a home and home Legends Cup rivalry series meetings against the University of Victoria Vikes to open the second week of the Canada West regular season action.
It all gets started a little earlier than usual on Thursday, November 1
st with the T-Birds hosting the Vikes at historic War Memorial gym for a 6:00 p.m. tipoff. The teams will then head across the water to meet in Victoria two days later on Saturday, November 3
rd with a 6:00 p.m. start time.
The last times these squads met in early February of this year it was the Vikes taking both games in the home and home series by narrow margins, with scores of 76-74 and 77-73.
Last Action
The T-Birds opened the regular season last week on home court with their annual Courtside Festival and used a balanced attack to get past the visiting Saskatchewan Huskies 71-64 on Friday night. The visitors would follow up with a 70-60 victory the next evening resulting in both teams coming away with 1-1 records.
The Vikes have started the campaign with a 2-0 record thanks to back to back road wins in Winnipeg last weekend, just edging the Wesmen 76-74 Friday night, followed up by a more comfortable 79-67 win on Saturday.
By the Numbers
47.1 – The T-Birds field goal shooting percentage in Friday night's win over the Huskies thanks to draining an efficient 32 of 68 attempts from the floor.
40 – The amount of points the 'Birds scored in the paint during Friday's win thanks to good execution from players in the post.
Players to watch
Keylyn Filewich (#9, F) - The third-year forward scored a combined 34 points over the weekend which included narrowly missing a double-double in Friday night's win while compiling 20 points and 9 rebounds.
Maddison Penn (#15, G) – The fourth-year guard scored a team high 15 points in Saturday's setback and will no doubt be a central figure in the T-Birds success going forward.
Coach's Take
"I think last weekend was a good challenge for us going against the Canada West preseason No. 1 ranked Huskies," said UBC head coach
Deb Huband. "I think we came out and showed quite well with energy and focus and made a step forward with a much stronger team game. It was encouraging to see a much stronger team game, much grittier, and skill sets have improved so there are positive signs. I think early in the season combined with playing a strong team reveals some weaknesses and areas that need attention and I think the main one that jumps out was our team rebounding effort particularly on Saturday night and our inability to take that game. We still have a lot of basketball ahead of us and I think we're encouraged with the distance we've traveled so far and we know we have a lot of work ahead of us with our goal of being in the playoff hunt down the road."
Huband also previewed what she expects from the Vikes.
"They're a tough feisty team coming off a big weekend sweep in Winnipeg," added Huband. "There's a long standing rivalry there of course and we know every time we play them there's going to be lots of hunger and emotion so we look forward to the home and home series and the Legends Cup meeting while also hopefully taking another step."
