UBC women’s basketball team beat the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack on Friday night, 75-72.
The Thunderbirds got off to a slow start. Half-way through the first quarter, Diana Lee made the first basket with a three point shot. Overall, this was a fairly low scoring period for both teams. First-year Jessica Hanson made a full court drive to the basket and earned another point on the foul. Cherub Lum also took the foul shot, scoring full points.
In the second quarter, T-Birds started off down by one thanks to a mostly defensive first quarter. Again, Lee scored first for UBC late in the game with her second three-pointer. This was immediately followed by a shot from third-year Shilpa Khanna. Susan Thompson made a sharp hook from under the net and Lee scored twice. Hanson really came alive and made three baskets — one with a clean hockey assist from Lee and fifth-year Adrienne Parkin. UBC was finally starting to pick up the pace, but trailed the WolfPack by seven, 38-31.
“We let them back in the game by not defending the three [point line] very well, which we knew was a strength of theirs,” said Head Coach Deb Huband. “But we got some good execution and some players came up with big shots when we needed them too.”
The third quarter was a lot of back and forth with TRU, but the T-Birds were now consistent with their shooting and chasing after those rebounds. Lee made yet another three-pointer early on and so did Lum, which dragged the team into the lead by one point. When the score tied up with five minutes left in the quarter, fourth-year Kara Spotton responded by stealing 10 points in that remaining time, helping to boost UBC ahead by six.
“We got ourselves a lead, but I didn’t like the way we squandered it so easily,” commented Huband on the fourth quarter. “But we refocused and gave ourselves another chance to win.”
Continuing the pattern in the last quarter, Lee made her fourth three point shot for UBC. Khanna got another three-pointer in right after from near the baseline. The WolfPack then started sinking three-pointers and they didn't stop. With only a minute and 30 seconds left in the game, UBC was down by two. The T-Birds upped their defensive and managed to hold back TRU while Lee was making shots and fourth-year Andrea Strujic jumped on the rebound. In the final 30 seconds, the Thunderbirds got their win back.