UBC Thunderbirds (10-9) vs UVic Vikes (15-4)
War Memorial Gym - The UBC Thunderbirds returned home from Victoria for their final regular season game after losing to the UVic Vikes Thursday night by just two points. The Women’s-Men’s double header games for the final weekend of the season were dubbed “Courtside”, meaning an all out production by the UBC Athletic Department to host a campus event that would create the best basketball game atmosphere in Vancouver this year.
The yearly “Courtside” game, now in it’s third year, is a campus wide event that invites students to wear their blue and gold at War Memorial Gym to create the “rowdiest and loudest” basketball game. The Thunderbirds pulled out all the stops this year, including a VIP Courtside Package contest, Halftime Snowboard giveaway, halftime show featuring dogs, drumlines, pre-game festivities, and lots and lots of giveaways. Oh, and a giant screen to show highlights, replays, and rowdy Thunderbird Fans. In other words, this is a full on production and the exclamation point on the end of the basketball season.
In front of 1,512 UBC fans, the Thunderbirds would score first the first bucket off of a shot in the paint from Keylyn Filewich. A few plays later, Jess Hanson would knock down the first of her six triples on the night, followed soon after by her second triple and a pair of free throws for eight quick points. The Vikes and Thunder would trade baskets throughout the rest of the quarter, and would get a bucket at the buzzer by Ali Norris who secured a defensive rebound and went coast-to-coast to to make the score 19-18 for the Vikes after one quarter.
In the second, the Thunderbirds kept attacking with a heavy dose of Jess Hanson and Keylyn Filewich who would finish the half with 13 and eight points respectively. For the Vikes it was Amira Giannattasio leading the charge, knocking down her own pair or triples in the quarter. By halftime, she has already amassed a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Shots that were falling in the first, weren’t in the second for the Thunderbirds, and by the halftime buzzer the score was 40-31 for the UVic Vikes.
At halftime of the game, the Thunderbirds honoured the 10th Anniversary of the 2008 Women’s team that won the CIS Championship and were greeted by a standing ovation from the crowd! The Thunderbirds came out in the third quarter playing inspired basketball and were once again led by the strong play Jess Hanson who was scoring from all over the court with her jump shot and drives. Madison Penn earned a couple trips to the free throw line, a result of her physical play that chipped into the Vikes lead. In the last minute Jess Hanson would hit a “3” and shot with only two seconds left that would make the score just 55-53 in favour of the Vikes entering the fourth.
In front of the home crowd of 1500+ people, the young UBC team would come out on a 5-0 run behind a layup from Keylyn Filewich and then an “and-1” from Madison Penn to put the Thunderbirds 58-55. Over the next three minutes Amira Giannattasio would score three “3’s” helping the Vikes regain their lead on a 13-2 run. Keylyn Filewich would go on to score four consecutive points and a three pointer by Jess Hanson would bring the game back to a one possession at 75-73 for the Vikes. Unfortunately that was as close as they would get as the Vikes closed the game out 77-73.
With the loss, the Thunderbirds drop to 10-10 in regular season, but good enough for 9th place in the 12 team Canada West playoffs. Their first round match-up is still TBA. Look for this young Thunderbird team to make some noise in the playoffs! Good luck to the UBC Thunderbirds from Vancouver Basketball.
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