WBB | Vikes stun T-Birds, punch ticket to Final Four

Written by Dan Kinvig for UFV Athletics

ABBOTSFORD — Rivalry match-ups tend to produce unexpected results at a higher-than-normal rate, and such was the case on Thursday afternoon as the Victoria Vikes stunned the UBC Thunderbirds in the Canada West women’s basketball quarter-finals.

Twice in the dying seconds of the fourth quarter, Vikes forward Mimi Sigue came up with crucial offensive rebounds and drew fouls both times, hitting three of four free throws to provide the winning margin as No. 10-seeded UVic upset No. 2-seeded UBC 66-63 at the UFV Athletic Centre.

The Vikes advance to face the Alberta Pandas in the CW semis on Saturday (1 p.m., CanadaWest.tv).

In the aftermath, head coach Carrie Watts reflected on her squad’s journey from an injury-riddled start to the season which saw them lose their first seven conference games, to making a second-half surge to level their record at 10-10 and qualify for the playoffs, to earning post-season wins over Lethbridge and UBC to punch their Final Four ticket.

“We had a lot of different players with concussions (in the fall), and obviously Tana (Pankratz) was out for the majority of the first semester,” Watts noted. 

“I think it was about finding our stride. We’re a younger group, and with Makena (Anderson) and Karis (de Paiva) both coming in and playing big minutes right from the get-go, there was kind of a trial by fire. Now we’ve got Tana back, another experienced leader, and I think everyone else has settled into their roles a little bit, whereas we were still searching for that a lot in the first semester. 

“It just feels like things are settled now. A lot of our players got a lot of opportunities in the first semester, and so they’re feeling good about things right now.” 

And for good reason.

A hotly contested first half settled little – the two teams headed to the locker rooms tied 36-36 – other than to demonstrate that the Vikes were certainly up for the task of making the favoured T-Birds sweat. UVic’s towering 6’4” centre Abigail Becker set the tone, racking up 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field to go with seven rebounds and two blocks. Olivia Weekes, meanwhile, led the charge for UBC with 12 points and nine boards over the opening 20 minutes.

UBC started the third quarter in promising fashion, reeling off a 7-0 run, but Pankratz took over the game at that point. The 6’1” guard scored seven points in the frame and added an emphatic blocked shot at the defensive end. Her efforts sparked a 10-0 UVic surge, capped by a Brooklyn White runner in the paint, that put them up 55-47 and prompted a UBC timeout.

The T-Birds, though, responded with eight straight points of their own bridging the third and fourth quarters, with four points apiece from Mona Berlitz and Weekes, to draw even at 55-55.

From there, it was a slugfest. Points were hard to come by, and neither team was able to open more than a two-point lead down the stretch.

With just over a minute remaining, UBC’s Berlitz scored on a driving layup to tie the game for the 13th (and final) time. 

After empty possessions for each team, Sigue followed a Pankratz miss with a rugged rebound amidst three UBC defenders. She rose for an attempted layup, was fouled, and made the first free throw. The second took a hard carom off the rim towards the right corner, and Sigue tracked it down and was fouled again. This time, she hit both to give her squad a 66-63 edge.

Rookie point guard Jade Huynh bravely pulled the trigger on a pair of shots from beyond the arc in the dying seconds that could have tied it – the first off a sweet step-back move, and the second after the T-Birds had collected the offensive rebound. Both drew iron, and the Vikes celebrated at the buzzer.

“We were struggling a little bit offensively (late in the fourth quarter), but Mimi is just a warrior out there,” Watts marveled. “She has a drive to get the ball and goes after it, and she’s so strong and is OK with the physicality. Her free throw shooting was not outstanding tonight (1-for-4 before her late heroics), but she came through with some clutch ones when it mattered. 

“She brought exactly what she’s capable of today.”

Becker finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds for UVic, Pankratz posted 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists, and Segue racked up 12 points and 15 boards in just 22 minutes.

Weekes (21 points, 13 rebounds) and Berlitz (18 points, 10 rebounds) both notched double-doubles for the T-Birds.

UBC head coach Isabel Ormond, reflecting on a campaign which saw her squad go 17-3 in regular-season play, said she was proud of what her players accomplished in 2023-24.

“It was a great season – it’s so hard to say that in this immediate moment,” she said. “But we’ve talked a lot this term about being mindful and present about what we’ve been able to do – how we got to these moments, how we handled these moments, and try to remember that.

“(UBC and UVic) are two of the original programs in university sport in Canada, so there’s such a big tradition of basketball and excellence from both schools. I think it’s great for the basketball community to have two teams like that compete as they did here today.”