The University of the Fraser Valley Cascades men’s basketball team were defeated by the Trinity Western University Spartans, 86-69, to see the Canada West quarterfinal two out of three series tied at one win each. Tonight is the third and final game of the series, at 7:00PM, at the Langley Events Centre, in Langley, BC.
Game two started off with the Cascades coming out strong and matching the higher ranked Spartans basket for basket. The Cascades led by three points after the first quarter and kept the pressure on TWU in the second quarter. With Thursday’s nights 81-80 victory in their back pocket, UFV played a good first half taking four point lead into the intermission, 43-39. The Cascades were led by Joel Friesen, Abbotsford, BC with a team high 15 points at the break.
The second half opened with UFV continuing to play a style of basketball that would keep TWU’s big inside players from causing any damage as the Cascades maintained the lead through the third quarter, by two points, 61-59. In the final quarter TWU showed why it finished second in the Canada West standings and is a Top Ten CIS program, by holding UFV to only 8 points while scoring 27 to even the series at one win each.
“I thought we did a great job tonight for 3 quarters, we controlled the game and put ourselves in position to win. But the hardest part of a playoff series is finishing a team off, and (Jacob) Doerksen made sure that wasn’t going to happen tonight. Our foul trouble definitely hurt us during those moments as well. We will regroup and look forward to another battle tomorrow evening,” said UFV Head Coach Barnaby Craddock.
Friesen led all UFV scorers with 24 points and 5 assists. James Elliott, Perth, Western Australia added 14 points and Zeon Gray, Los Angeles, CA chipped in with 11 points in game two. Josh Kufske, Abbotsford, BC Elliott and Gray all pulled down 3 rebounds each to lead UFV as they recorded 21 boards for the game.
UFV 20 23 18 8 = 69 (1-1)
TWU 17 22 20 27 = 86 (1-1)
Top Scorers:
UFV: Joel Friesen 24 points/ TWU: Jacob Doerksen 32 points
Team Rebounds:
UFV: 7+14=21 / TWU: 15+25=40
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