VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds enjoyed both a determined defensive effort and balanced attack en route to a convincing 97-41 victory over the UNBC Timberwolves on Senior night at War Memorial Gym.

The total team effort saw the T-Birds score their highest point total of the season which was fitting on a night where the team honoured eight graduating Seniors in a post-game ceremony where they were joined by family and friends. Those playing their final regular season game on home court in the blue and gold included Olivia Weekes, Sara Toneguzzi, Sofia Bergman, Katie Hartman, Jaeli Ibbetson, Cassie Joli-Coeur, Kiarra Kelly and Jessica Orr.

"Before the game I spoke to our Seniors and group about the next chapter," said UBC head coach Dave Taylor. "The celebration of everything they've done is after the game and they've done so much and during the game it's to show what type of team they've become on the floor. I thought that was a perfect example of that tonight with a great game and we can celebrate all they've meant to this university and this program after the game so it's been awesome."



UBC spread out the offence with five-players reaching double-digits and leading the way for Weekes with a game high 16 points and 14 rebounds to record her seventh double-double of the campaign. Three fellow Seniors joined Weekes in double-digits including Ibbetson who added 15 points while Joli-Coeur and Berman chipped in with 14 and 13 points respectively. First-year forward Brooke Wagner poured in 14 points while adding four rebounds in the contest that saw the 'Birds improve to 14-4 on the season.



For the visitors it was Avin Jahangiri with a team high 12 points and Viktoriia Filatova tallying 11 as UNBC saw their record fall to 1-17.

For a second night in a row UBC was dominant in the paint and in the turnover department in forcing UNBC to give it up 25 times and in turn leading to 38 points off turnovers for the hosts. The T-Birds were also able to establish their presence inside, out-rebounding the T-Wolves 57-18 while capitalizing on 34 second chance points compared to five for the visitors.



"That was a complete game both offensively and defensively that was a complete game which I was really happy about," added Taylor. "It's all about the turnovers and rebounding right and that translates into more opportunities so we outshoot them 80 to 58 and 25 to 11 on free throw attempts, so you're just going to win a lot more games if you're getting that many more attempts up."

UBC was sharp right from the opening quarter in outscoring UNBC 27-8, Weekes scored seven points while Joli-Coeur added six points and the Pacific Division's first place team kept UNBC off balance in making just three of their first 14 shot attempts.



The second frame saw the T-Birds score another 27 points highlighted by Jade Huynh hitting the team's first three-pointer of the night from the left arc to extend the lead to 39-15. UBC would then find themselves hit a brief lull that included some uncharacteristic turnovers, amounting to six total in the quarter causing head coach Dave Taylor to call a timeout to refocus his group. The brief break worked as Ibbetson caught fire in compiling 10 points the rest of the way before Bergman reached into her bag of trick to hit an old school hook shot as time expired to give the Thunderbirds a comfortable 54-20 advantage at halftime.



The final two-quarters saw the Timberwolves add 21 total points compared to 43 for the T-Birds who cruised to a 97-41 win to sweep the weekend series while improving to 8-1 at War Memorial Gym this season.

Up next for UBC they'll hit the road to visit the rival Victoria Vikes for the final two games of the Canada West regular season beginning Friday February 6 with a 6:00 p.m. PT tip off. If the T-Birds win one of their final two-games they'll clinch the top seed heading into the Canada West playoffs. You can catch all the action on Canada West TV.