VANCOUVER, B.C. – For the first time this decade, UBC Thunderbirds women's basketball will be hosting a playoff game at War Memorial Gym. After earning the No.2-seed in the Canada West playoffs, UBC (18-2) will play on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. (PT) in a conference quarter-final against the winner of a play-in game between No.7 Regina Cougars (13-7) and No.11 UBCO Heat (7-13) that's also being hosted at War Gym on Friday at 5:30 p.m. (PT).
Since the cancelled COVID season in 2020-2021 Canada West had been employing a single-site playoff tournament, meaning the T-Birds had no opportunity to host post-season games last year when the team took a massive leap forward in its first season under head coach Isabel Ormond, going 17-3 and also earning the No.2-seed in the conference.
"I'm really excited to start the post-season at home with our home fans in our home environment!" said Coach Ormond. "It's something that we earned through our conference play last year, but with the structure didn't get the opportunity to experience, so I'm really excited to use that to our advantage and then build some hype toward nationals in March!"
This season, Canada West has changed its playoff format, maintaining single-game elimination but doing away with a single-site tournament.
The post-season begins with a play-in round between teams 5-12 with each play-in game taking place in the gym of one of the top four teams. The play-in winner then plays their host in a quarter-final the next day, before semifinal and final rounds hosted by the higher remaining seeds each of the next two weekends.
A bronze medal game is only required this year if the T-Birds reach the gold medal game, as Canada West has been assigned two berths at the U SPORTS Championship, not including UBC's guaranteed berth as the host. This means the two Canada West finalists make nationals if the 'Birds are not one of them or UBC's fellow finalist and the bronze winner will make it if the blue and gold go all the way.
"For us, we talked about just winning our way into the tournament and treating it like every other year through playoffs," commented Ormond. "You do your work in the regular season to set yourself up for playoffs, now we need to do our work in the playoffs to set ourselves up for nationals."
Ahead of the
The 2025 INDOCHINO U SPORTS Women's and Men's Final 8 Basketball Championships presented by Victory Creative Group, the T-Birds will be taking on either a very familiar opponent in UBCO or a team they haven't seen in a meaningful game in over two years in Regina.
The UBCO Heat just visited War Gym two weekends ago for the 'Birds' final regular season games. The T-Birds were terrific in both matchups, winning 95-53 & 106-47, the latter representing the first time that the team had eclipsed 100 points in more than five years.
The Heat showed a strong tendency to apply pressure, which UBC used to its advantage in scoring frequently on the fast break, while both teams showed tenacity in battling for offensive boards. A rematch so soon after their last series sets up an intriguing strategic battle, with each side potentially having to decide whether to play to their established strengths or pull out a new wrinkle to throw off expectations.
"Sometimes it's almost harder to face an opponent who has just seen you play really well," mused Ormond. "They're not going to back down, nobody really cares what happened in the regular season anymore, it's a do or die game that anyone could take. We'd like to approach it like we did our last home weekend in conference and hope things work out the same way."
Regina presents quite a different potential challenge than UBCO, spearheaded by a prolific point-producer leading one of the best backcourts in the country.
Cougars fourth-year wing Jade Bellmore was the top scorer in Canada West this year, tallying 19.4 points per game while also sitting top five in rebounds and top 10 in assists. Her career scoring average of 17.6 points per game is seventh best in Canada West history and far above any other active player in the conference.
She's not the only top-10 scorer on the team this year either, as fellow fourth-year guard Cara Misskey is also averaging an even 15 points per game, making them the highest scoring pair of teammates in Canada West.
"They shoot the ball really well, they have a lot of threats from the three-point line and then both Jade Bellmore and Cara Misskey are having great seasons," noted Ormond. "We know they're going to be competitive, they play at a pretty fast pace and they score at a very high volume, so we're really trying to work on our defensive focus and intensity to prepare for Regina."
Should the T-Birds win Saturday's game, the team would then host a single-game semifinal back at War Gym the following weekend, which is tentatively scheduled for 3:00 p.m. (PT) on Saturday, March 1
st.
