Prince George, B.C. – The surging UBC Thunderbirds (14-2) relied on a balanced attack en route to an 81-65 victory over the UNBC Timberwolves (2-12) Saturday night in Prince George. Olivia Weekes (19), Mona Berlitz (18) and Cerys Merton (16) combined for 53 points and defensively the T-Birds forced 31 turnovers in the win – Their 10^th in a row. UNBC countered with a 14-point, 15 rebound double-double effort from Svetlana Boykova along with double-digit efforts from Rebecca Landry (13), Viktoriia Filatova (11) and Amrit Manak (13). 
 
UBC led 27-19 after the opening 10. Merton had 11 of the first 25 points for UBC. She was three-for-three from deep and was four-of-five from the field. Defensively she added four steals and a rebound. Berlitz (5) and Weekes (6) also combined for 11 for UBC.


 
After Jade Huynh hit a three for UBC, Manak answered with her second triple of the night, moving UNBC back to within six at 37-31. But for the final half of the second quarter, UBC held UNBC to just five points while potting 13 of their own. At half, UBC led 50-36 on the strength of six second quarter points from Jade Hynh, five from Berlitz and another three from Merton which gave her 14-points at half and a new single-game career high. At half the T-Wolves were shooting 15-of-29 (51.7 percent) but were trailing the turnover battle 14-3. 
 
UNBC began the third on a 12-7 run to momentarily push the UBC lead back to single-digits. Boykova chimed in with seven points while Viktoriia Filatova supplied an early three and a deep two. Berlitz supplied six of the eventual 15 UBC points in the third quarter while Merton added a pair of successful free-throws, pushing her totals to 16 which matched Berlitz for the game-high through three. Through 30 minutes, UBC led 65-50 and had a +18 turnover differential. 


 
The T-Birds outscored UNBC 16-15 in the final 10. Olivia Weekes had a big final quarter for UBC, potting 10 points on four-of-six shooting.
 
The 'Birds are back on the road next week for a series against the UBC Okanagan Heat with the first meeting scheduled for Friday January, 26^th at 5:00 p.m.