UFV Cascades defeat UBC Thu7nderbirds, 77-72, at Envision Athletic Centre
The University of the Fraser Valley Cascades defeated the UBC Thunderbirds, 77-72, at the Envision Athletic Centre to improve their reco9rd to 11-5, good for third place in the West Division of Canada West conference. With the victory tonight, UFV clinches a post season berth and their chances of hosting a quarterfinal playoff series stays alive. The Cascades trail the University of Victoria by one game. The UBC Thunderbirds record falls to 12-3.
The Thunderbirds came out strong and quickly established an early lead which became a double digit lead after the first quarter 27-16. While UFV started slowly in the first, they almost made up the deficit in the second quarter, playing great defense they held the high powered UBC offense to 9 points as outscored the Thunderbirds by nine to trail by two points at the break.
The second half belonged to UFV as the Cascades again played excellent defense holding UBC to 36 points in the half, while outscoring the CIS’s number three ranked team, by seven points. The Cascades, ranked eighth in the CIS, kept the pressure on UBC and prevented the Thunderbirds from coming within three points in the final quarter.
“We were a long way from playing 40 solid minutes tonight, but I was still proud our the guys resolve to stay together and have the focus to come back after the bad first quarter,” said UFV head coach Barnaby Craddock. “UBC is a good team and they weren’t ready to play at high enough level to compete with them in the first quarter, but we have been working on playing more as a team when things aren’t going our way, so it was great to see the guy rally together and keep increase the focus level.”
The Cascades were led by Joel Friesen, Abbotsford, BC with 18 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. Four other Cascades were in double figures, Kyle Grewal, Surrey, BC with 13 points and 8 rebounds, Sam Freeman, Coquitlam, BC with 12 points and 2 steals, Jordan Blackman, Abbotsford, BC with 12 points and Jasper Moedt, Abbotsford, BC with 10 points and a team leading 17 rebounds.
The Thunderbirds top scorer was Nathan Yu, Richmond, BC with a game high 24 point performance. Doug Plumb, Pitt Meadows, BC added 15 points against his old school and Graham Bath, Langley, BC with 11 points in the loss to UFV.
The Cascades host the Thunderbirds tomorrow night, at the Envision Athletic Centre, 7PM start time.
UBC 27 9 16 20 = 72 (12-3)
UFV 16 18 19 24 = 77 (11-5)
For further information contact David Kent, Sports Information, 604-309-7658 david.kent@ufv.ca
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