After two straight weeks on the road the UBC Thunderbirds return home to the friendly confines of historic War Memorial Gym hosting the UNBC Timberwolves for back to back meetings this weekend.
 
It all gets started with an early school day game on Friday January 25 where local elementary school kids are invited to attend the game that has a special 1:00 p.m. tipoff. This is followed by regular 5 p.m. start on Saturday night where longtime T-Birds head coach Deb Huband will be honored in a pre-game presentation for achieving a very special milestone of 500 career coaching wins, set two weeks prior on the road against Trinity Western University.
 
It will be the first regular season meeting between the T-Birds and T-Wolves in over a year dating back to early November, of 2017 when UBC traveled to Prince George and dropped both contests by scores of 75-65 and 79-61.


 

Last Action

 
Last weekend the T-Birds extended their winning streak to nine straight games and improved to 12-4 on the season after earning the road sweep over the Brandon Bobcats with victories of 77-50 and 85-56.
 
The Timberwolves saw their record drop to 9-7 after suffering back to back setbacks in Edmonton against the Alberta Pandas with scores of 86-72 and 85-75.


 

Players to Watch

 
Keylyn Filewich – (#9, F) The third-year forward earned back to back double doubles while combining for 44 points and 26 rebounds in last weekend's victories. This included a 28 point and 15 rebound effort in Friday's win back in her home province of Manitoba. Filewich continues to boast the top shooting percentage in all of Canada West at 60.3 while ranking second overall in average rebounds per game with 10.8.
 
Maddison Penn – (#15, G) The fourth-year guard narrowly missed tallying consecutive double doubles last weekend coming up just one rebound short on Friday night while following that up with a 15 point, 12 rebound and 5 steals effort in Saturday night's win. Penn is the second leading scorer on the 'Birds behind Filewich averaging 16.2 points per game while also sitting just behind Filewich, sitting third overall in the conference averaging 10.6 rebounds per game.


 

Coach's Take

 
"I think we had a pretty strong showing through a difficult road trip," said UBC head coach Deb Huband. "With the distance and the time change and the early game start on Friday so we knew we were up against some challenges which I think we did a really good job focusing and preparing ourselves to play."
 
Huband also previewed what she expects from visiting UNBC.
 
"I think they're a very tough matchup with a very strong starting five with some good size and perimeter scorers," added Huband. "They have three players that I've heard them claim are the best threesome in Canada West who are capable of scoring a lot of points so I think our defence will be tested along with our ability to execute our game plan."