A difficult weekend on the road came to an end for the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack women's basketball team with a 94-54 loss at the hands of the UBC Thunderbirds.
With 11 different Thunderbirds getting on the scoresheet, Hailey Counsell led the T-Birds with 22 points, Kate Johnson had 12 points with four steals and four assists, and Madison Legault put up 16 points with seven rebounds and three blocks in the win.
UBC grabbed 15 steals and scored 29 points off of turnovers, while TRU rebounded well and went 21 for 25 from the free throw line.
Anneke Cairnie had a team-high 11 points and eight rebounds, while
Karishma Rai and
Priyanca Sundher each scored nine points in the loss. The trio of Cairnie, Sundher and Rai all set new career marks in the game. The 11 points matched a career-high for Cairnie, while Sundher played a career-high 30 minutes in the defeat. Rai went 3-5 from beyond-the-arc for a career-high nine points.
TRU opened the scoring and kept pace with the 'Birds at 5-5 before Counsell drained her second three for an 8-5 lead and UBC rattled off an 11-0 run midway through the first quarter. Johnson found Azalya Forstbauer in the paint for an 18-9 lead with just under two minutes remaining, but Cairnie scored two free throws to trim the deficit to seven and the T-Birds took a 20-11 lead into the second.
Kamloops product
Jessica Orr knocked down a triple early in the second, but costly WolfPack turnovers allowed the 'Birds to maintain a double-digits lead at 24-14. First-year Thunderbird Katie Hartman earned a hoop and the harm for a 35-18 cushion and hit a three on the next trip down the court. Sundher responded with a pair of free throws and a layup for the WolfPack, and
Megan Rouault scored on a reverse layup to cut into the T-Bird lead, but another Johnson scoop and score late gave UBC a 50-27 lead at halftime.
The 'Birds came out of the gates with a 7-0 run to start the second half and extended their lead to 30 on a Madison Legault breakaway layup as the T-Birds continued to fire on all cylinders with an 80-37 lead after three quarters.
Karishma Rai made a three for TRU in the fourth, but Ryann Kristmanson replied with a triple of her own at 94-48 'Birds and the home team continued on to their second straight win.
The WolfPack will look to bounce back at home against the University of Victoria Vikes January 28-29 inside the Tournament Capital Centre.
