KELOWNA, British Columbia – With an impressive fourth quarter finish, the Trinity Western women's basketball team nabbed its second win in as many nights, beating UBC Okanagan 71-63 Saturday.

The Heat held the lead at the end of each of the first three quarters, but the Spartans, much like on Friday night, took over in the fourth quarter and pulled away.

Third-year forward Tessa Ratzlaff (Abbotsford, B.C.) led the way with 29 points for TWU, making 13 of her 22 shots from the field. Fifth-year shooting guard Natalie Carkner (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) and third-year guard Jessie Brown (Langley) also hit double digits, scoring 12 and 10 points respectively.

Emily Kanester led the team in scoring, finishing with 16 points, while Claire Elliott followed close behind with 12, adding nine rebounds and just missing a double-double. Kanester has a career total of 909 points and 18 more games in the conference schedule.

Trinity Western were the better shooting team on Saturday night, shooting 50.9 per cent from the field and 41.7 per cent from three-point range. The Heat finished the night shooting 42.9 per cent and 30.8 per cent from beyond the arc.

"We were able to grind it out tonight," said TWU coach Cheryl Jean-Paul. "Reducing our turnovers in the second half and finishing our high percentage takes helped us step up at the right times, especially in the fourth. It's so hard to get two wins on the road so we are really happy to be leaving this gym with two wins. We have areas to improve on but more importantly areas of strength to keep taking advantage of in the half-court and defensively."

The first quarter ended with UBCO up by one point, 18-17. The Spartans got on the board first with a Brown layup while Heat forward Chloe Kennedy started the Heat offence, scoring her team's first four points on a pair of jump shots. TWU had a lead for the last five minutes of the quarter, before a Jordan Korol layup with 32 seconds left put the Heat up at the first buzzer. Kanester and Kennedy led the scoring in the first frame for the Heat with four points apiece, while fourth-year forward Kayla Gordon (Prince George, B.C.) led the Spartans with five.

The Heat started the second quarter by growing their lead to six, going up 23-17 a minute in, before back to back 3-pointers by Luca Schmidt (Langley) and Carkner brought the Spartans even with the Heat at 23 with 8:22 left in the first half. A free throw from Kanester gave the Heat back the lead with 7:19 left, before both defences took over through a two-minutes-long scoreless stretch. Emma Jonas got the scoring going again with a three-pointer with 5:12 left, putting the Heat up 27-23.

With 3:49 left in the first half, Kanester hit a three to give her team a 32-23 lead, and put her name in the record books as the most prolific scorer to ever play for the UBC Okanagan Heat women's basketball team, with 901 career points.

At half-time, the Heat led 37-33. Kanester and Ratzlaff led their respective teams in scoring with eight points each. Claire Elliott had the most impressive stat line of the first half though, with seven points, six rebounds, and four assists.

The Heat started strong in the second half, going up 41-33 thanks to a Jordan Korol layup and a three-pointer from Chloe Kennedy. Three straight baskets by Ratzlaff tied the game up at 43-43 at the 6:18 mark in the third. Trinity Western tied the game two more times, at 45-45 and 47-47, before taking their first lead of the second half, 48-47 with 2:49 to play in the quarter. The defences then took control again and the next basket didn't come until Vanessa Botteselle made a layup with 26 seconds to go, putting the Heat up 49-48 through three quarters.

Trinity Western took over at the beginning of the fourth quarter, scoring the first 11 points of the quarter and taking a 59-49 lead. The Spartans defence also kept the Heat off the board in the final quarter until Kanester converted an and-one with 6:30 left to play. A layup from Korol at the 4:38 mark made it a two possession game, but Sarah Buckingham answered quickly with a three and Trinity Western's defence shut down the Heat shooters and the next UBC Okanagan points came with 1:47 to go on another Kanester and-one conversion, making the score 67-60 in favour of the Spartans. The final minute and change was evenly played between the two teams, and at the final buzzer the Spartans led 71-63.

Trinity Western (2-0) will play next Friday and Saturday as well, when they play a home and home with the UFV Cascades (1-1)

-UBCO-