VICTORIA - The University of Victoria Vikes women's basketball team dropped a 76-59 decision to the UBC Thunderbirds on Feb. 18 on Shoot For The Cure night in front of a full house at McKinnon Gymnasium.
With the loss the Vikes fall to 15-8 and will finish in sixth place in the Canada West regardless of the result on Saturday night in the rematch with the Thunderbirds. UVic will travel to play at Regina in the best-of-three Canada West quarter-final series on Feb. 25-27.
UBC improves to 16-7 and will finish in fifth place in the conference regardless of Saturday night's result with UVIc. They will face Alberta in Edmonton in their quarter-final series.
BOX SCORE
VIDEO RECAP BY NORM LEBUS
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Jane Anholt# led the Vikes with 13 points, while #
Vanessa Forstbauer# added seven rebounds. Alex Vieweg was the top Thunderbirds player on the night with 24 points and seven boards.
"Jane played like a fifth year player tonight," said Vikes women's basketball head coach Brian Cheng. "She just found ways to create in the offence. We weren't running any plays to her, she just found it. That's what fifth years do."
A UBC run early in the third quarter proved to be the difference, killing a six-point UVic start with seven points in 28 seconds, en route to a 13-4 Thunderbirds swing.
UBC jumped out to an early 16-4 lead with great pressure, capitalizing on Vikes backcourt turnovers. The Thunderbirds led 25-11 after the first quarter, enjoying a lead as big as 17.
The Vikes make it respectable at the half, outscoring the Thunderbirds 21-15 in the second quarter.
Anholt with back-to-back-to-back baskets, spurred a 6-0 Vikes run to open the third quarter, but the Thunderbirds responded with a 13-4 run of their own - including seven unanswered points in 28 seconds - to build a double-digit lead again.
They never looked back.
"We came in wanting to win and wanting to compete," Cheng said. "But give credit to UBC. They've got a good team, an athletic team… They moved the ball into our zone inside and got some easy looks. We have to get tougher."
Regina defeated Manitoba, 61-54, to clinch third spot in the Canada West, while idle Alberta will finish fourth. Saskatchewan is in first place and Winnipeg will finish second.
Other Friday night women's scores were Winnipeg 78 Lethbridge 60 and Saskatchewan 83 Calgary 55.
SCORING BY QUARTER
UBC 25 15 20 16 - 76
UVic 11 21 11 16 - 59
