Canada West Women's Basketball Weekend Results - November 24-25
Nov. 24th
UBC 71 – Winnipeg 78
Nov. 25th
UBC 52 – Winnipeg 71
On Friday, the stars came out to play, as the top two scorers in the Canada West battled it out in front of a crowd of 500. The TBirds’ Australian Guard Maddison Penn and Winnipeg’s Antoinette Miller both put on a show, each posting 31 points, with Penn hauling in 13 rebounds while Miller ran the floor, almost connecting a triple double, with 9 assists and 9 steals.
UBC came out of the gates strong, going up 25-12 after the quarter break, but from then on it was a back and forth game until the final frame, where Winnipeg’s defense stepped up and held UBC to only 7 points, ultimately sealing the victory.
In the second game of the back to back, the story seemed eerily similar minus the strong start for the Thunderbirds. Winnipeg went up 39-29 at halftime then used their stifiling defense to force 14 turnovers in the second half, holding UBC to just 9 points in the third quarter. “We continued to be hampered by our turnovers and inability to consistently rebound,” Coach Huband said after the weekend. The Wesmen never looked back and completed the weekend sweep with a convincing 71-52 win.
Adjustments were made after the Friday game and Penn and Miller were both slowed down, with Penn only netting 11 points and 12 boards, while Miller had a quiet 20 points on 8 of 22 shooting. Defense was a major factor in this game however, with Miller having another 7 steals Saturday.
Huband challenges her team as they’re poised for another tough weekend back home against 3rd place University of Regina Cougars (7-1). “As we learn by fire with this young squad and if we could take better care of the ball and rebound with tenacity, we would compete at a higher level.”
Nov. 24
TRU 67 – Mount Royal University 59
Nov. 25
TRU 70 – Mount Royal 64
The Thompson Rivers University Wolfpack are back to their winning ways after defeating the Mount Royal University Cougars in two tight contests. These two games were in the perfect place in the Wolfpack’s schedule, as they needed to bounce back from losing 4 in a row, and what better way to do it than with games against a winless MRU team.
The Cougars didn’t go down without a fight, as Friday’s game was tightly contested throughout, with TRU holding on to a slim margin the entire game. The Wolfpack bounced back Saturday afternoon, flying to a 22-6 first quarter margin, but the Cougars almost fully clawed their way back, outscoring TRU by 15 points in the second half to cut their loss to 6 points
Nov 24
UNBC 50 – MacEwan 58
Nov. 25
UNBC 57 – MacEwan 59
The UNBC Timberwolves failed to capitalize on their strong performances against tougher opponents earlier in the season and left Edmonton with two losses to MacEwan University. The Saturday game was a nail-biter right to the very end, as the Griffins’ Paige Knull stole the ball from the Timberwolves Maria Mongomo and beat the clock with a game winning layup.
Nov. 24
UBCO 48 – UFV 65
Nov. 25
UBCO 37 – UFV 65
The UFV Cascades dominated their matchup over the weekend with a pair of convincing wins over the UBC Okanagan Heat. Fifth year Coquitlam native Shayna Litman was the top performer in each match, posting 24 points and 9 rebounds on Friday, and following that performance up with a 17 point 12 rebound double double the next day. UFV’s defensive prowess was on show as well, holding the Heat to their lowest scoring outputs of the season in both games.