VANCOUVER – The Alberta Pandas relied on a total team effort to bounce back and get past the UBC Thunderbirds 67-61 Saturday afternoon at War Memorial Gym. It was a back-and-forth battle for a second night in a row with the difference being Alberta's nearly 60 percent shooting from the field and defensive awareness to earn the weekend series split. With the win the Padas improve to 6 and 2 on the season while the T-Birds fall to 5-3 on the campaign in their final action ahead of the extended holiday break.
Leading the way at both ends of the floor for Alberta was team captain Emma Kary with a game high 22 points and seven rebounds while Jenna Harpe added 11 points and five rebounds. Meanwhile Claire Signatovich contributed five points but more importantly 11 rebounds, eight of which were at the defensive end and helping the Pandas in a key area of the game where they totalled 23 defensive rebounds compared to the T-Birds 17.
Leading the way for UBC was Olvia Weekes with 17 points while the only other player in double figures was
Emily Martindale who added 11 points, while
Azalya Forstbauer chipped in with eight points.
"It's always hard to lose the first night of a series and try and to try and bounce back," said Pandas head coach Scott Edwards. "It's unfortunately already happened to us once this year so we're aware of it, but no I was proud of our resiliency our ability to come back and shoot the ball better than we did yesterday. That was a big part of our struggles last night we didn't shoot the ball well and couldn't get into our pressure defence and I thought today we were able to do that and cause some more problems for the Thunderbirds and you know I'm just happy we got this win."
A night after suffering just their second loss of the season the Pandas we're ready to play in jumping out to an 11-2 lead on the heels of a Harpe three-pointer, causing UBC head coach Erin McAleenan to call a timeout. Alberta managed to increase their advantage immediately following the break thanks to a Morgan Harris three-pointer to increase the point gap to 12 before the T-Birds began to methodically reel the visitors in.
Cerys Merton got it started by swishing a mid-range jumper followed by
Azalya Forstbauer hitting back-to-back buckets, the second finishing off a fast break bounce pass from
Hailey Counsell to cut the Pandas lead in half at 16-8. The hosts followed with
Emily Martindale scoring six points in quick succession, first making good from beyond the arc before completing a reverse under the bucket while being fouled and hitting her foul shot. Sophia Bergman also chimed in from distance for the blue and gold to pull within five-points 24-19 at the end of the first quarter.
The second stanza saw an intriguing battle in the paint from both sides as
Olivia Weekes stepped up for the 'Birds scoring her first nine points of the game down low while Kary answered for the Pandas, producing 10 of her sixteen first half points from the key in the frame for a four-point lead at the half, 40-36.
The third quarter saw both teams trade points without much separation, one of the highlights included Bergman using her court vision for a beauty seeing eye bounce pass between bodies to a streaking Merton for an easy lay-up for UBC to keep it within a four-point spread at 48-44. Martindale would follow with a three-pointer before adding a shot off the glass as part of her five third quarter points to pull the T-Birds within one at 54-53. For the Pandas it leading the way in the frame was Shae McCusker and Claire Signatovich with three-points each.
To the Pandas credit they locked it down on the road when it mattered most in the fourth quarter leading by one point, they managed to outscore UBC 14-9 thanks to some key defensive boards and clutch scoring. This included with just over a minute to play and Alberta leading 64-61, Semeniuk drove the lane and pulled up for a floater off the glass to increase their lead to five-points at 66-61 to put the game out of reach.
Both the T-Birds and Pandas, along with the rest of Canada West head into the extended holiday break before returning in the new year. UBC begins 2023 on the road for a weekend series in Brandon Friday and Saturday January 6 and 7 while the Alberta hosts UBC Okanagan on the same weekend.
