The University of the Fraser Valley Cascades men’s basketball team opened the 2011-12 Canada West 18 game regular season schedule by splitting two in Kamloops, BC. The Cascades defeated the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack, 77-69, on Friday, while dropping Saturday’s game 91-83. The Cascades ranked 7th in the CIS top ten poll, will now set their sites on their home opener, Friday, November 11th against the University of Manitoba Bisons.
On Friday night, UFV came out strong and quickly establish a lead which they never relinquished all night. The Cascades led by four points after the first quarter and built a six point lead at the break. In the second half, UFV continued to play great defense holding the Wolfpack to 14 third quarter points. UFV would go on to win by eight points.
The Cascades were led by Sam Freeman, Coquitlam, BC with a team high 18 points and 9 rebounds. Kyle Grewal, Surrey, BC added 15 points a team high 12 rebounds, while Jasper Moedt, Abbotsford, BC scored 14 points in the win.
“I thought we earned the win with a solid defensive effort tonight. Credit TRU for good defense as well, as I thought we really struggled at the offensive end. But we got big stops throughout the game when we needed them. Kyle and Sam managed to step up and hit a couple timely shots when we needed them to,” said UFV Head Coach Barnaby Craddock.
On Saturday night The Cascades continued where they left off on Friday, leading by eight points after the first quarter, UFV added to their lead in the second and went into the locker room up by 17 points. The Wolfpack owned the second half, holding UFV to 34 points, including only 10 in the third, outscoring their visitors by 25 points to come away with the eight point victory.
Freeman again led UFV with a team high 22 point performance. Grewal added 17 points Joel Friesen, Abbotsford, BC with 12. Moedt led all Cascades with 9 total rebounds.
“Hopefully we can take to heart the lessons that we learned from our second half performance. We stopped playing with the defensive intensity that allowed us to build up the first half lead. We also stopped playing as a unit, as we had done in the first half. The combination of those two things was our demise. TRU earned the win by playing great basketball in the second half,” said UFV Head Coach Barnaby Craddock.
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