VICTORIA – Two days after an historic triple overtime victory in Vancouver, the UBC Thunderbirds dropped the second half of a home-and-home with the Victoria Vikes Saturday night, 72-65 at the CARSA Performance Gym, splitting the Legends Cup series.
With the win, the Vikes improve to a 3-1 record while UBC falls to 2-2.
Katie Langdon led the Vikes with 19 points on the night to go along with eight rebounds and two steals.
The Thunderbirds would get out to an early 14-9 lead in the first quarter. The two sides got stuck at that score for over two minutes until Amira Giannattasio sunk her first three-pointer of the night to pull the Vikes within two at the quarter break. Thunderbird and 2017 Canada West All Star Maddison Penn showed her ability to generate points in tight to the net as she led the T-birds with six points in the opening frame.
"We started the game really well tonight," commented T-birds head coach Deb Huband. "After that, we went away from what was working for us and never really found our stride again."
The Vikes came out firing in the second quarter, starting with a 10-3 run to take a 22-17 lead. However, the Thunderbirds would go on 10-3 run of their own, wrestling the lead away from the Vikes to go up 27-25. The T-birds' Penn would be the first player to hit double digits in points on the night but UBC would find themselves down 31-29 at half time. Langdon and Calli McMillan scored back-to-back baskets to give the Vikes the lead at the break.
Just before the half way mark of the third quarter, Giannattasio and Ashlyn Day hit back-to-back three point shots to give the Vikes a 44-35 lead. UBC would follow that up with a 10-2 run to pull back to within one point.
Keylyn Filewich scored 10 points in the third quarter alone for the T-birds but they trailed the Vikes 50-49 heading into the final quarter of play.
UBC and Victoria went back and forth in the final quarter, taking turns leading but never by more than a couple points. The T-birds would call their timeout with 4:12 left to play in the game, up by a score of 59-55.
Aleah Ashlee sank a three point shot with just over three minutes to play to get the Vikes back out in front. Katie Langdon drew a foul late and hit both her free throws to put the Vikes up 67-63 and would grind out the rest of the game, winning by a final score of 72-65.
After splitting both of their opening weekends in Canada West play, the 'Birds head to Winnipeg next weekend for a pair of games against the Manitoba Bisons.
