The University of Victoria Vikes women's basketball team faced off against UBC Thunderbirds in their second game of the weekend, Feb. 15 at War Memorial gym in Vancouver, B.C. With playoff hosting duties on the line, the two squads once again battled in a tightly contested affair that ended in a 79-69 UBC victory.

BOX SCORE
 
After a 25-point game in the Vikes' Feb. 14 victory over UBC, second-year Vike Jenna Bugiardini was held to just two points in the opening half of play Saturday night, finishing the night with six points total. Teammates Jessica Renfrew and Shaylyn Crisp led the Vikes with 15 points apiece, while Jenny Lewis and Sarah Semeniuk put up 12 and 10 points, respectively.
 
For the 'Birds, Kris Young and Harleen Sidhu both surpassed the 20-point mark, with Young putting up a double-double of 30 points and 12 rebounds, while Sidhu had 20 points and nine boards.
 
The Vikes finish third in the Canada West Pacific Division with a record of 15-7, while the T-Birds finish the regular season at 16-6.
 
After Crisp gave Victoria a 65-62 lead with a three-point shot with 5:30 left in the game, UBC responded with two triples in succession, one from Young 24 seconds after Crisp's bucket and one from Cassandra Knievel with 3:47 remaining, which gave the T-Birds a 68-65 advantage.
 
That lead held for nearly three minutes as neither team found success on the offensive end. With 55 seconds left on the game clock, Crisp grabbed a rebound off a UBC miss but T-Bird Cherub Lum stole the ball from her and drew a foul. The first-year guard from Vancouver hit one of two foul shots to put her team up 69-65.
 
On the ensuing possession, Victoria's Jenna Bugiardini had an opportunity to make it a one-possession game but missed her jumper. Sidhu took the rebound and was fouled. Victoria head coach Dani Sinclair was assessed a technical foul after making it known she wasn't happy with the call. So with 32 seconds left, Sidhu hit three of four free throws to make it 72-65. UBC retained possession and Young was quickly fouled after the ball was in-bounded. She hit two more shots from the line to put the game out of reach.
 
The Thunderbirds outscored the Vikes 21-10 in the fourth quarter.
 
The game was an exciting back-and-forth affair as the teams traded the lead 13 times and were tied on eight occasions.
 
In the first half, the squads continued their great shooting from last night's game on Vancouver Island. UBC was 21 of 36 from the field (58.3 per cent) in the first half while Victoria was 16 of 30 (53.3 per cent).
 
For the game, the T-Birds made 30 of their 64 shots (46.8 per cent). The Vikes finished 27 of 64 (42.2 per cent). Statistically, neither team held a huge advantage as UBC hit five triples while Victoria had six. The rebounding battle was 38-36 in favour of the home team.
 
UBC were down 19-18 at the end of the first quarter but went on a 12-2 run to open the second with Sidhu scoring eight of those 12 points. She and Young were spectacular for UBC as Young scored 13 points and grabbed five rebounds in the quarter while Sidhu had 10 points. The Vikes replied with a big run of their own before halftime, led by Crisp with eight points that closed the Vikes deficit to 40-39, which grew to 45-41 by the break.
 
Victoria will now open the playoffs by traveling to Regina to face the Cougars in a best-of-three Canada West Quarter-Final match-up, beginning Feb. 21. UBC will host the Saskatchewan Huskies in two weeks time.