The UBC women’s basketball team were ranked second in the Canada West (CW) conference going into this 2024/25 season, and they have been showing why with stellar performances so far this season.
“It's really exciting, and I think we're seeing a lot of growth in a lot of areas,” said head coach Isabel Ormond. “This is great to give us some momentum, energy [and] some pieces to keep working on.”
The Thunderbirds are 12–1 this season, sitting at first in their division and in CW. After a weekend sweep against the second place division team, the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades, they have gained a comfortable lead with a commanding 0.923 winning percentage.
UBC is a strong and varied team with many skilled players on offence and defence. Olivia Weekes has been a consistent player, playing well all-around and leads the team in rebounds per game.
Mona Berlitz has been another standout, especially offensively. With a strong performance in the weekend series against UFV, she earned Canada West women’s basketball player of the week. She earned 26 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and a block in the latest game, doing it all for UBC against the Cascades. Berlitz is also ranked second in CW for points per game with 17.1.
The ‘Birds have been dominating as shown by their record with only one dropped game to the University of Calgary Dinos in a split weekend series. UBC’s defence, especially, has been a standout as they have kept almost all opponents under 60 points — their average points allowed is only 52.5. They also have one of the highest steal rates as their high-pressure play and never-slowing-down attitude in games has been consistent.
“Defensively … we have Cerys Merton of course, our point guard is really leading the charge there, but we have to have Olivia on the floor, and she's just been very reliable,” said Ormond.
UBC has proven their depth as competitors so far this season as their offence has also been a force. The T-Birds are second in CW in field goal percentage with 42.4 per cent, and average points per game with 77.8. Also, UBC leads the conference for offensive rebounding; their consistent attacking to the boards has earned them a strong 12.8 rebound margin.
Coming up UBC has some more challenging games ahead starting with an away game against the University of Victoria Vikes this Thursday.
Looking ahead to this matchup Ormond said, “They have some extremely talented post players and some very big, impactful wing players, so it's a great challenge for us to keep fine tuning some of the details in our execution.”
The biggest focus for the second half of this season for the Thunderbirds is playoffs. This year UBC is the host of the Final 8 national championship and therefore gets an automatic seed.
But the T-Birds are not looking to settle as the goal is “really earning our berth through playoffs the same way as any other team,” said Ormond.
They’ll look to continue their winning ways with just four weeks left in the regular season.
“Our big focus is the end of the year, and it all matters where you end up in February and March.”
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