VANCOUVER - The UVic Vikes women's basketball team defeated the UBC Thunderbirds 64-58 on Saturday, to complete the series sweep and clinch second place in the Pacific division standings.
The Vikes win, their eighth straight, brings a playoff series to McKinnon Gym February 25-27. The no. 7 Vikes will host the no. 3 seed from the Prairie division in a best-of-three series, once the regular season concludes next weekend.
BOXSCORE
Debbie Yeboah scored a game high 24 points, and led the Vikes comeback effort with 16 points coming in the second half of play. UVic trailed 30-21 at halftime, but regained their scoring touch in the third with an 11-14 shooting performance.
The Vikes took the lead in the third quarter and the momentum carried them until the final whistle. Over the final two quarters, UVic outscored UBC 42-28. The T-Birds led by as many as 13 points in the first half.
"Give UBC full credit because they had us on their heels the whole first half," said head coach
Brian Cheng. "We made a run at them in the second and once we started hitting our shots things fell into place."
Kristen Hughes and
Vanessa Forstbauer also played significant roles in the second half turnaround. Hughes, who realized a career high 18 points in Friday night's game, finished with 13 points, including nine in the decisive third quarter swing.
Forstbauer scored 10 of her 12 points in the second half, and also managed six 'boards.
Kayla Dykstra was held to eight points, but grabbed 12 rebounds.
UBC received 16 points from Lia St. Pierre and Arianne Duchesne came off the bench to net 15 on 7-8 shooting. Zara Huntley picked up 12 rebounds.
Before the playoffs begin the Vikes still have one game remaining in the Canada West regular season. On February 13th, UVic will host the no. 1 ranked Simon Fraser Clan at 1 p.m. The Clan owns a 54-game win streak with their last loss coming against the Vikes on October 31, 2009.