Box Score
LETHBRIDGE – The University of Lethbridge Pronghorns women’s basketball team (2-4) looked to maintain their perfect home record this weekend, but the nation’s second ranked team proved to be too hot to handle as the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds soared to a 74-56 victory Friday night at the 1^st Choice Savings Centre.

The T-Birds began the game with a 9-0 run before a Natalie Nichols free throw put the ‘Horns on the scoreboard. Though the T-Birds’ lead would wax to as many as 26 and wane back down to 18 over the next thirty-seven minutes of play, the ‘Horns failed to make much headway against the 3-1 team who amassed a 22 point halftime lead.

The ‘Horns’s balanced scoring attack lacked enough force to threaten the T-Birds’ lead, resting on Kim Veldman’s 11 points and Lauren Taal’s 10. 3Cassidy Taal and Jami Wiebe# each added seven in the loss, while Natalie Nichols snagged eight rebounds.

The T-Birds rode the hot hand of Kristjana Young, who came into Lethbridge third on the Canada West scoring list, averaging 17.3 points per game. Young had 19 first half points and led all scorers with 23 on the night. She also pulled down 10 boards, notching a double-double. Young was aided by 13 from Kristen Hughes and 11 from Leigh Stansfield.

The story of the ‘Horns’s season thus far has been that of low-scoring, close games, but the T-Birds refused to keep to the Lethbridge pattern, meeting their season average 74 points per game. The most telling statistic of the night was the discrepancy between the two team’s shooting percentages, the Pronghorns hitting a dismal 28.1% while the T-Birds cashed in on 47.5% of their shots.

That low percentage could have been due to a change-up in the ‘Horns offence to prepare for the abundant size of the T-Birds. “We really focused this week on preparing for their bigs and we had to change our offense a little bit because we knew that the lay-ups wouldn’t be there,” reported Nichols. “We knew we needed to put in a bigger lineup today and concentrate on hitting pull-up jumpers instead of penetrating.”

Fourth-year post, Morgan Cross added, “Because we were so focused on their post players, we didn’t really expect Young to score as much as she did. We made some adjustments at half time and I thought we came out with a better second half. We held her to four points and out-rebounded them in the second half.”

With the loss the 'Horns fall to 2-5, while the T-Birds improve to 4-1 and will look to sweep their Alberta opponents this weekend, traveling to Calgary to face the Dinos.

The ‘Horns will look to build on those adjustments tomorrow night against the University of Victoria Vikes (4-3). The game will tip off at 6 pm with the men’s game to follow at 8. The games will be webcast on canadawest.tv.