SASKATOON – The Thunderbirds were in tough again on the road on Saturday, as they fell to the No. 1 nationally-ranked Saskatchewan Huskies for the second straight game.
 
Stella LaGrange led the T-Birds in scoring with 14 points on 3-4 shooting from the field and 7-9 from the free throw line. Olivia Weekes provided 12 points, six rebounds and four assists, while Jaeli Ibbetson had 11 points and five boards.
 
Tea DeMong poured in 22 points with an incredible 7-8 shooting performance, while Gage Grassick double-doubled with 16 points and 10 assists.
 
Sofia Bergman, making the start in her first Canada West appearance of the season, scored UBC's first points of the game on a layup inside off a nice feed from Sara Toneguzzi. Both teams took a little while to get their offence going, with the score reading 7-4 Saskatchewan midway through the opening quarter.
 
The Huskies put the pressure on, briefly going up double digits before consecutive buckets inside from Brooke Wagner and Katie Hartman, followed by a face-up jumper from Cassie Joli-Coeur, cut the lead to four.


 
The hosts had the necessary counter-punch, however, and the first quarter ended with the Huskies up 21-13.
 
LaGrange and Weekes combined for a series of buckets early in the second, but the Huskies kept pace offensively and slowly began to stretch out their advantage. The lead got to as high as 18 before a Kiarra Kelly triple and Weekes and-one provided some much-needed baskets.
 
Down by 15 entering the second half, the Thunderbirds were unable to make a sustained push to get the deficit back down to single digits. The defending national champs then pulled away near the end of the frame, with Isabela Jickling and Maya Flindall raining a barrage of three-pointers to put their team up 77-49.
 
The Huskies cruised to the end from there, improving to 8-0 with an emphatic win.  The Thunderbirds, now 5-3, will look to rebound as they face the UBC Okanagan Heat on the road on the Friday and Saturday of November 28 and 29. After that, it's the winter break with the team next in action in January.