VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds are primed for the post-season as the 2024 Canada West women's basketball championship begins this week with the newly formatted five-day tournament, hosted by the University of the Fraser Valley beginning Wednesday February, 21 through Sunday February, 25 in Abbotsford.
 
The T-Birds head into action as the No. 2-seed thanks to an impressive 17-3 regular season conference record and with that earned a first round bye to Thursday's quarter-final round where they'll open the tournament with a 3:00 p.m. tip off. The 'Birds, who are looking to claim a ninth Canada West championship in program history are scheduled to meet the winner of Wednesday's play-in game that see's the No. 7 seed Lethbridge Pronghorns take on the 10^th-ranked UVic Vikes at 3:00 p.m.
 
The conference altered the format for the championships this year, moving away from having higher seeds host individual playoff games in favour of inviting teams with the 12 best regular season winning percentages, seeded by RPI, to a pre-determined location for a four-round single-elimination tournament. The Saskatchewan Huskies (19-1) enter as the No. 1 seed, followed by UBC ranked second, The Calgary Dinos (16-4) at No. 3 and the host UFV Cascades (17-3) rounding out the top four seeds, all who enjoy the first-round bye on Wednesday as the rest play in the four-game play-in round to tip things off. Followed by the quarter-finals on Thursday, a day off on Friday, then semi-final Saturday and Championship Sunday.

The sixth-ranked Alberta Pandas are looking to defend their championship from a year ago and carry momentum into the 2024 U SPORTS Championship presented by the Westin Edmonton, which the University of Alberta is hosting in Edmonton March 7-11.


 
 "We're thrilled to get to playoffs as most teams are," said UBC head coach Isabel Ormond. "Conference games are so fun but there's something to be said about this game and this moment that only comes in playoffs and it's a really exciting test for us. It's important to just go game by game, especially with how competitive the conference has been with so many teams being so close regardless of their record. We just need to stay present in the game we're in, it's easy as a coach especially to get caught up in what's next but there's no what's next if you don't take care of the moment you're in, so we'll try to be mindful of that and stay present."


 
Ormond, who was the lead assistant coach with the 2023 CW champion Pandas, had an immediate impact in her first-year as head coach of the T-Birds. Ensuring the young squad that had an inherent defensive pedigree challenged itself to find ways to generate more offence and be a more balanced team at both ends of the floor. The new found balance was reflected in the numbers as UBC remained fairly stingy giving up just 57.3 points per game, the fifth least in the conference while becoming more of a threat offensively, averaging 71.1 points per game which graded out as the sixth most in CW. The former captain of the McMaster Marauders admits she was pleasantly surprised to learn of the depth that revealed itself over the course of year one on the west coast.
 
"There are so many options," added Ormond. "There's a lot of different players that can bring a lot of different things and we've really had flexibility to choose what we want to take advantage of in certain moments. We've changed our line up a lot, we've dealt with injuries where we've changed our style of play, so just our ability to be different and adapt to the team we're playing is something I've learned the most."


 
That team evolution helped Ormond improve the 'Birds record year over year by six wins in 2023-24, finishing with a 17-3 record after the team posted an 11-9 record in 2022-23. The 'Birds are built from the inside out and led by recently announced Canada West second-team all-stars, Mona Berlitz and Olivia Weekes. Berlitz a 6 foot, second-year forward out of Schrobenhausen, Germany led the T-Birds in points, averaging 16.1 per game while collecting a team leading 9.6 rebounds per game. Weekes, a lengthy guard at 5 foot 11 inches out of Winnipeg, Manitoba also did most of her damage in the paint as the team's second leading scorer, producing 13.1 points and 9.3 rebounds per contest. Add in the versatility of forward Sofia Bergman, the court vision of point guard Cerys Merton and the outside scoring threat of clutch scorer and veteran leader Emily Martindale, the blue and gold have proven to be a well-rounded operation.


 
"Offense was a big area we needed to work on from previous years to this year," explained Ormond. "The defensive energy and intensity is great, so our ability to now bring out more offense has allowed us to win low scoring games that are more of a defensive grind and we've been able to win high scoring games that are more of an offensive output. We've been able to do both and now we need to have them together."
 
Ormond is confident the T-Birds are trending in the right direction heading into the playoffs as they've displayed good energy and habits while winning 13 of their last 14 outings. Ormond specifically points to their second to last regular season game less than two-weeks ago, a 66-59 victory over the visiting Dinos as her groups best overall game of the season thanks to being composed and taking care of the ball.


 
"A lot comes down to how we pass the ball," continued Ormond, when asked about what the T-Birds basic recipe for success revolves around. "Does it get to your teammate or the other team, I know that's a really basic one but stealing passes and having those live ball turnovers can really impact the flow of the game and it can be a two or four-point swing really quickly. We need to concentrate on how we're moving the ball at pace with the kinds of passes we're making Is important. How are we able to score the ball or have the other team get a defensive rebound forcing us to guard right away so those back-to-back possessions. It's easy to score right away and have a really great play and take your foot of the gas, so it's that mindset that you need to be able to score and defend or defend and score, whatever way it's working out."


 
The Thunderbirds managed to sweep weekend series' against both of their potential quarter-final round opponents earlier in the Canada West campaign, defeating the Lethbridge Pronghorns by scores of 68-57 and 75-50 in early November, before getting past UVic 70-51 and 72-52 later that same month. However, Ormond is quick to point out that nobody is taking those results from over two-months ago into consideration as both teams have been bolstered by the return of significant players from injury.
 
The T-Birds will meet either Lethbridge or UVic this Thursday February 22 with a 3:00 p.m. tip off in Canada West championship quarter-final action from the UFV Athletic Centre in Abbotsford. Stream all the action from the Canada West playoff tournament live or on demand on Canada West. TV.