Murray Mitchell /The Daily News

KAYLA FORSYTH of the TRU WolfPack (7) squeezes between Zara Huntley (12) and Devan Lisson of the UBC Thunderbirds during a Canada West women’s basketball game Thursday at the Tournament Capital Centre.

The biggest score in the UBC Thunderbirds’ victory Thursday came from its smallest player.

The Thunderbirds beat the TRU WolfPack 76-62 in a Canada West women’s basketball game at the Tournament Capital Centre. The rematch is scheduled for tonight, 6 o’clock, at the TCC.

Despite the final score, the WolfPack stuck with the Thunderbirds for most the game. That is, until Chloee St. Amour, all 5-foot-5 of her, delivered the first in a series of haymakers for the T-Birds.

St. Amour’s big score came with 2:05 remaining in the third quarter and UBC leading 48-43. With TRU coming on strong — the WolfPack had scored the previous six points — the shot clock was winding down on a UBC possession.

St. Amour fought her way into the key and chucked up a prayer as the shot clock expired. The ball fell threw the hoop, UBC went on a 19-5 run and this one was over.

“Those are very discouraging,” said WolfPack head coach Scott Reeves. “Twenty-four seconds is a long time to play against a very disciplined team like UBC . . . and then they kind of get a prayer — it happens.”

Reeves didn’t think the play was that big of a momentum swing.

“It does kind of deflate you,” he said, “but that wasn’t really a turning point.”

Either way, the T-Birds led 55-46 after three quarters, and started the fourth on a 13-2 run.

“Any time you can beat the clock, you feel like you’ve escaped,” said UBC head coach Deb Huband of St. Amour’s basket. “I think at times we were a little stagnant and didn’t have as much movement as we would like offensively, and that time we were able to get off the hook by a good offensive effort.

“Maybe it spurred us on to get moving a little more.”

Regardless of how the key points were scored, the Thunderbirds were the better team on this night.

UBC, which now is 3-2, couldn’t shake the WolfPack early, and only led 34-32 at the half. TRU (2-3) worked hard to keep the game close, but UBC’s defence stepped up in the second half and kept the WolfPack to 10-for-28 shooting in the last 20 minutes.

“In the second half we were able to get some consecutive stops and some rebounds that allowed us to push the ball,” Huband said. “When you can get a few consecutive stops, that usually is the difference-maker in the game.”

The T-Birds were keying on WolfPack guard Jen Ju, who entered the game averaging 18 points. Ju only managed four points while turning the ball over nine times.

“Jen Ju is the seventh leading scorer in the country, and they weren’t unaware of that,” Reeves said. “She would bring the ball down the floor, and find four people packed in there — she would try to penetrate and they would all collapse. That makes it pretty hard to pass.”

Tracy Kocs had 14 points and eight rebounds for TRU, and Diane Schuetze ended with 10 points and eight boards. Kaitlyn Widsten had 12 points, eight of them in the last two minutes.

Zara Huntley led the Thunderbirds with 18 points and nine rebounds, with Alex Vieweg scoring 15 points, Devan Lisson scoring 11 and Lia St. Pierre getting 10.

FOUL SHOTS: Tonight’s games will be the last league contests for any TRU team at the TCC until Jan. 8. . . . St. Amour ended with nine points. . . . The game was a fairly clean affair, with TRU going 9-for-14 from the free-throw line and UBC going 6-for-12. . . . Thirteen of the game’s 26 free throws came during a four-minute stretch in the second quarter. . . . Lindsay Dekoff went 4-for-5 from the field for the WolfPack, and ended with nine points and seven rebounds. . . . TRU went 7-for-14 from three-point land; UBC was 6-for-19.

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The WolfPack men’s basketball team lost 84-81 to the Thunderbirds in a game TRU led by eight points at the half and 12 in the final six minutes.

The WolfPack is 0-5; UBC is 4-0. The teams are scheduled to play again tonight, 8 o’clock, at the TCC.

TRU led 75-63 with 5:43 remaining, but allowed the T-Birds to score 21 of the games’ final 27 points. TRU’s biggest lead was 16 points, which it held with four minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Despite coughing up the lead late, the WolfPack’s Drew Bleth made a three-pointer with 39 seconds remaining to tie the game at 81.

Josh Whyte, who scored 24 points to lead the Thunderbirds, made it 84-81 with a three-point play — a basket and a foul — with 19 seconds remaining.

TRU pressed for the tying points, but Sean Garvey missed a three-pointer with 15 seconds remaining, and Bleth missed another at the buzzer.

Bleth led the WolfPack with 20 points, while Greg Stewart had 16 points and 14 rebounds. Jeff Friesen had 13 points and seven rebounds in a losing effort, while Garvey had 11 points and a team-high five assists.

Connor Agnew had eight points off the bench.

Melvyn Mayott had 17 points for UBC, with Nathan Yu scoring 13 and Alex Murphy scoring 11. Kyle Watson added nine points and a team-best 11 rebounds for UBC.

Kamar Burke, who played two seasons with the WolfPack (2006-08) had a tough night for the Thunderbirds, scoring only one point and grabbing only two rebounds in 14 minutes on the court.

mhunter@kamloopsnews.ca

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