VANCOUVER – The No.10 nationally ranked UBC Thunderbirds (8-4) completed the sweep of Pacific Division-leading Trinity Western Spartans (10-4), securing a 58-45 in a gritty defensive battle. The win moves UBC closer to the coveted top spot in the Pacific Division, with the division winner earning the No.1 seed in the Canada West and guaranteed home-court advantage through all of the playoffs.
 
Olivia Weekes led the way for the Thunderbirds, scoring 15 points and collecting 14 rebounds. With the 14 rebounds, Weekes sits at 674 in her career and third all-time in UBC history behind Kelsey Blair (852) and Keylyn Filewich (676). Jaeli Ibbetson came close to a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds for UBC. For the second straight night, Myrlaine Shelvey led the way for TWU with 13 points.
 
Looking to flip the script from last night, TWU came out with renewed energy and brought out full-court pressure to build a 16-10 lead after the first quarter thanks to seven UBC turnovers. After going down by 10 early in the second, tough defensive pressure of their own would swing the momentum in UBC's favour, and a last-shot clock desperation 3-point shot from Cassie Joli-Coeur, her first made 3-pointer of her career, would cut the deficit to one. UBC turned up their aggression throughout the quarter and really looked to attack the rim and would go into the half up 33-28 thanks to 7 offensive boards and making good on 8 of 9 free throw attempts.


 
"I thought it was much sloppier than last night," said UBC head coach Dave Taylor. "Second game in as many days it took us a bit to get our legs under us and we just weren't as sharp and that results in us trying to do a lot of one of one rather than more movement and creating shots for each other. That said I loved our intensity especially defensively and that obviously won us the game but I thought we weren't as sharp offensively as we could have been, again we found a way to scrap and win and at the end of the day sometime you just have to get these ugly ones."
 
Both teams would come out in the second half with tough defensive pressure, but every time TWU would try to go on a run, UBC would respond. With a seven-point lead to start the fourth quarter, UBC would lock down TWU and only allow one field goal and five points on their way to a 58-45 victory. UBC continued their well-rounded team effort, with 10 players scoring for the second consecutive game.


 
"We were playing for first place," added Taylor when asked how satisfying it was to begin the second half 2-0 in some high stake's games. "At the end of the day we have the tie-breaker in first and that's what we wanted to come out of this weekend with, first place in the Pacific Division and now we control our fate which is what we wanted."
 
The Thunderbirds head out on the road for their only swing trip of the season. They'll travel to Prince George to take on the UNBC Timberwolves on Thursday night before heading to Kamloops to play the TRU Wolfpack. Tip-off against the Timberwolves is at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 15, followed by an afternoon tilt with the Wolfpack on Saturday, January 17 at 4:00 p.m. You can catch all the action on Canada West TV.