As the UBC women’s basketball team was set to face the University of Northern BC Timberwolves on Jan. 15th — a team with only one win this season — a complete blowout seemed to be in the cards. After a surprisingly close first quarter, it was. The Thunderbirds had an impressive offensive showing, growing their lead every quarter to steamroll the Timberwolves 84–49. In their 35-point win, they secured their second largest margin of victory in the season.
Anything less than a strong win for UBC would have been shocking. UNBC has not been able to earn a win over the T-Birds in nearly four years, and for the past few seasons, the Timberwolves have struggled against both UBC and in the Pacific Division as a whole, only winning four games in both the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 seasons.
This season has been no different for UNBC — perhaps even worse. Holding a 1–11 record before facing the Thunderbirds, they have been struggling all season long, with their only win coming against the University of Fraser Valley Cascades — another team sitting at the bottom of the Pacific Division.
For UBC, this win marked their fourth in a row. While the win may have been expected, it was still an important one, continuing their rebound after a recent rocky stretch — the Thunderbirds had dropped three games in a row right before winter break. While they went out on a high note before the holidays with a win against the UBC Okanagan Heat, they’d need to keep it up in January. Since returning to play, they have.
Before heading back onto the road to face UNBC, UBC hosted their neighbouring rivals, the Trinity Western University Spartans, in their first two games after the break. It was a successful weekend sweep for the T-Birds, winning both games by strong margins: 85–55 and 58–45.
These openers were a chance to show off their prowess as a team against one of the top teams in Canada West, with Trinity Western being UBC’s main competition for the top spot in their division. With these empathic home wins under their belt, as well as their four-game winning streak, UBC is building a strong case for themselves as contenders this season.
Yet, with eight games left in the regular season, the ‘Birds couldn’t get too confident, still needing more wins to clinch the top spot in the division. And early on, the Timberwolves looked to play spoiler. UNBC started the game with high energy, pushing to the net as rookie Aurora Cabrera sank a jumper after a dish by third-year Viktoriia Filatova. While they had secured the early lead, the Timberwolves would need to play their best game of the season to keep up and have a chance for a win over the T-Birds.
UBC pushed back quickly. Fourth-year Cerys Merton worked sharp on defence right away to steal the ball, quickly taking it down the court for the layup. With the quick basket in transition, UBC had tied the score at 4. Teams have struggled to keep up with the ‘Birds this season because of players like Merton, one of many veteran players bringing experience to the UBC team. Over her years, she has especially made an impact on the defensive side — currently sitting at second in Canada West for steals with 55.
Yet, despite UBC’s strong defence, the Timberwolves were doing well to stick with the Thunderbirds to start the match. UBC was able to just get the edge over UNBC to end the first, as Sara Toneguzzi lobbed the ball to Sofia Bergman under the net to put it up and tie it at 15. Then, with the last possession of the first quarter, off a second chance shot, fifth-year Cassie Joli-Coeur nailed a jumper right at the buzzer for the T-Birds to take the lead 17–15 . They had the lead — but it wasn’t as emphatic as they might have expected.
The second quarter started off a little slower, as both teams found themselves at the free throw line to earn their points — but the T-Birds held better control of the game. They continued to play with a fierce defence, applying pressure to UNBC right from the inbound. This caused difficulties for the Timberwolves, as every possession was a fight.
With their high press propelling their defence, UBC also started to find their rhythm on offence. Jaeli Ibbetson passed to fellow new Thunderbird Joli-Coeur in the corner, who let the jumper fall.
Soon after, Joli-Coeur made another jumper with a quick catch and release by the baseline, as UBC started to extend their lead to 30–26. In this game and throughout the season, Joli-Coeur has proven to be an expert with her mid-range jumper. She consistently finds her spot by the baseline or in the paint for the easy floater to score — this was especially true in this game.
Joli-Coeur led UBC’s offence against the Timberwolves with 20 points and 8 rebounds — a career-high as a T-Bird. In only her first year as a Thunderbird, she is anything but a rookie.
Joli-Coeur is a fifth-year player hailing from Ontario, who previously played out east for the McMaster University Marauders. Along with Ibbetson, UBC’s other graduate transfer, she has brought more experience and depth to this year’s UBC team, while also providing some additional height for the T-Birds.
With Joli-Coeur’s push on offence — supported by the rest of the T-Birds’ high intensity play — UBC finally held a substantial lead over the Timberwolves. By halftime, the Thunderbirds had successfully started to pull away with the game, going up 38–26.
To their credit, however, UNBC wouldn’t go away easily. The Timberwolves came out with some newfound energy, as Cabrera started off the second half, muscling her way to the net for a layup. UNBC desperately needed to catch up, hoping not just to score, but also to stop UBC’s offence. And for a moment, they did. After Cabrera’s layup, they fired up the defence with a strip and steal, showing some grit to try and come back.
The T-Birds struggled to connect on offence in the opening moments of the quarter — that was, until fifth-year guard Olivia Weekes got them started, sinking two free throws for UBC’s first points of the half. She did not stop there. The Thunderbirds played off this momentum and stole the ball to earn back possession right away, and Weekes went straight to the net, faked out the Timberwolves defender and found a clear shot. With back-to-back points for the vet, UBC continued to grow their lead, up 42–30.
Off another steal, third-year sharpshooter Kiarra Kelly knocked down the three after coming off the bench. Kelly, a quick impact player — had 8 points in 11 minutes, making all her shots. This sequence exemplified UBC’s strengths in this game, as the T-Birds capitalized off changes in possession, having 25 points off turnovers.
With about half of the third quarter remaining, UBC had gone on a 11–0 scoring run. The game was quickly morphing into a blowout, as the T-Birds led 49–30.
To end the third quarter, Ibbetson went two for two from the line, bringing UBC to a 20 point lead, going up 60–40 heading into the last ten minutes of the game. With such a strong lead before the fourth quarter, UNBC’s hopes were fading fast.
They were snuffed out quickly. The Thunderbirds had their best quarter to end the game, both offensively and defensively, keeping the Timberwolves from putting up a solid fight in the end. In the last quarter, UBC held UNBC to only 9 points, while scoring 24 points themselves.
This offensive surge was led by fifth-year Katie Hartman, who set them up for success as the T-Birds swiftly moved the ball around the perimeter. Early in the quarter, Hartman passed to Bergman in the corner for a jumper, putting UBC up 65–40. Right after, Hartman got points of her own, as she drained a three-pointer after another forced turnover by the Timberwolves.
With every possession in the fourth quarter, the T-Birds strengthened their lead and continued to play with high intensity. Rookie Brooke Wagner grabbed her own rebound and went to the net once again for a reverse layup. She made the basket and drew the foul for a three-point play, putting UBC ahead 71–42.
Weekes was also impressive on offence — muscling her way to the net, ending the game with a double-double, notching 14 points and 10 rebounds. Plenty of those rebounds were defensive boards, contributing to her all-around impressive performance.
Even in the last two minutes of the game, as the T-Birds were up by 37,UBC’s defence did not give the Timberwolves an inch. They made every shot difficult. The only points they could manage often came from the line.
In the last possession of the game, the Timberwolves were able to get a three-point shot off with two seconds remaining — making their first basket from the field all quarter. The nice final possession wouldn’t change anything, however, as UBC let the clock run out and officially took the 35 point win, 84–49.
With such a dominant performance, it was clear that the Thunderbirds certainly had a lot going in their favour. For one, the depth of UNBC was no match to UBC’s — as the Timberwolves had 12 bench points compared to the T-Birds’ 52.
The ‘Birds were especially potent when possession changed hands. UBC's ability to capitalize on second chance points and quick points in transition from steals or turnovers really benefited them in the long run. On the other end, UBC only gave up 3 points off turnovers — even though they had almost as many as UNBC with 19.
UBC continued their road trip the following day as they headed off to Kamloops to face the Thompson Rivers University Wolfpack. There, the Thunderbirds kept up their winning streak with another solid win on the road, toppling the Wolfpack 72–66.
