The University of British Columbia Thunderbirds took advantage of some solid free-throw shooting in the first half and rolled to a 71-54 win over the hometown Thompson Rivers University WolfPack in Canada West women’s basketball play Saturday, Nov. 16 at the Tournament Capital Centre.
Despite the loss, a Salmon Arm player took top honours.
The Thunderbirds outscored the WolfPack in three of the four quarters, and TRU falls to 3 and 3 while the T-Birds are 4 and 2.
“They were 70 per cent from the three point line at the half,” said WolfPack head coach Scott Reeves. “Twenty-one points on three points of the 33 they had by that time. That is pretty tough to face. We were only down (33-31) and had a shot at it. We did tighten up our defence a bit but they started to hit more shots.”
UBC had three players in double figures: Kris Young (4th year, guard, North Vancouver) and Adrienne Parkin (3rd year, forward, Vancouver) each had 16 points. Harleen Sidhu (4th year, forward, Surrey) added 14 points.
TRU got 20 points from Kassie Colonna (2nd year, forward, Invermere), Salmon Arm’s Jorri Duxbury (4th year, guard) had 12 points, eight assists and seven steals.
Duxbury was named the TRU Bookstore/McDonalds ‘Leader of the Pack’ player of the game.
Taiysa Worsfold (3rd year, forward, Kamloops) added 10 points.
Reeves said the difference between Friday’s victory over UBC and the decision on this night was obvious. “They used their size. When they can go with three kids over 6’2” and I have one, that is not really good. We have a 5’9” kid trying to guard a 6’2” kid – that’s tough. Size was definitely an issue.”
The WolfPack hits the road next week for games in Calgary and Lethbridge (Nov. 29 and 30). Next home action for TRU is Friday, Nov. 2, 6 p.m., when they host Mount Royal.