Aneesa Heatherington / UBC Thunderbirds

VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds (7-8) toppled the MacEwan Griffins (4-11) 64-39 on a special school day matinee at War Memorial Gym for their third consecutive victory in 2018.

Keylyn Filewich credited the packed gym for giving her T-Birds an extra boost. "To have this many kids...it fueled us and propelled us to this win" said the second-year forward.

The boisterous home crowd roared when Ali Norris netted the first basket of the game, and the school day spectators continued to bring an ear-splitting enthusiasm throughout a dominant performance by the 'Birds.

"There was a great energy in the gym with school day...a thousand kids here...so it was a fun environment to play in," said UBC Head Coach Deb Huband. "It was a little different acoustically, but that's a good problem to have."

Maddison Penn took advantage of a Jessica Hansen steal to drain the first triple of the game and gave the 'Birds a 12-2 lead with 4:49 remaining in the first. Penn added two more threes and UBC's defense allowed just five points in the opening ten minutes of play, leading by 21.

"We wanted wanted to keep them to single digits per quarter, it's been our philosophy all week," said Filewich. "Deb [Huband]'s been telling us 'Good teams play good defense' and that's what helped us score the 26 points in the first quarter."

The Thunderbirds maintained their lead despite a Griffin push in the second quarter and held a 37-16 advantage at the half. UBC went on a 12-3 run to start the third, and Dina Strujic extended the T-Bird lead to 30, up 50-20 with 2:49 left in the quarter, as the 'Birds closed it out in the fourth.

The Thunderbirds took advantage of 12 steals and 20 points off of turnovers, alongside 30 points in the paint. Penn lead the UBC scoring with 21 points and added 7 boards, while Filewich was two rebounds shy of another double double - and scored 11 points in the win.

Kayla Ivicak put up 14 points and 7 boards for the Griffins, who outscored the Thunderbirds 17-12 in the fourth quarter.

"We've been working on our defensive foundation," said Huband "We've seen a lot of improvement since December. I think we had good intensity to start and made it tough for them in the first quarter...after that we let up a bit. I'd like to see us extend that intensity over the course of forty minutes."

UBC and MacEwan will renew acquaintances Saturday at War Memorial Gym with tip-off slated for 5:00 pm PST.

PHOTO: Bob Frid / UBC Thunderbirds