Sports

UBC Thunderbirds win Canada West conference varsity women's basketball championship

by jtsg | March 4, 2008 at 09:32 am

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Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada (2008/3/1) — The University of British Columbia (UBC) Thunderbirds defend their Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Canada West conference women's basketball championship with victories over the University of Regina Cougars and University of Alberta Pandas.

UBC will enter the CIS national championship tournament (Mar. 7-9 at University of Saskatchewan) as the #2 seed and take on the #7 seed University of Toronto Varsity Blues on quarter-final Friday.

In the conference championship final, the Thundebirds made the best of a 12-0 run in the first half en route to defeating the #4 seed Regina Cougars 70-59 and winning the Canada West banner.

5th-year senior guard Erica McGuinness of the T-Birds scored a game-high 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field.

UBC's front court duo of 5th-year senior Julie Little with 3rd-year Leanne Evans played commandingly in the key combining for 26 points and 22 rebounds.

The Cougars were unable to build on the euphoric energy from their 84-79 semi-final upset of the #1 seed Simon Fraser University (SFU) Clan a day earlier.

Regina played wearily coming out of halftime scoring only 9 points in the third quarter and shooting 29% from the field in the second half.

4th-year forward Jessica Lynch paced the Cougars with 20 points on 7-of-11 field goals in 24 minutes.

Emerging from the Canada West conference as silver medalists nevertheless clinches Regina's berth to the national championship tournament in Saskatoon, where the Cougars will face the Atlantic conference champion #5 seed Memorial University Sea-Hawks.

With home court advantage, the SFU Clan rebounded from their semi-final defeat by eliminating the Alberta Pandas 72-55 in the bronze medal game.

Simon Fraser clinches the final Canada West conference spot at the nationals where they will face the #8 seed Quebec conference champion Université Laval Rouge et Or.

The #6 seed tournament host University of Saskatchewan Huskies and the #3 seed Ontario conference champion McMaster University Marauders round out the quarter-final match-ups.