Vancouver, BC…The University of the Fraser Valley Cascades, ranked 8th in the CIS, knocked off the UBC Thunderbirds, ranked number one, 89-77, at the War Memorial Gym, in Vancouver tonight. The Cascades Canada West regular season record improves to 3-3, while UBC suffers its first loss of the campaign and now sits at 5-1.
The game was a very entertaining high paced affair with the home team UBC pulling ahead quickly with several early baskets. The Cascades head coach Adam Friesen did not waste any time as he went to his bench and installed rookie guard Manny Dulay into the lineup and the Surrey native responded with six first quarter points to spark UFV. The Cascades went into the second quarter down by four points, that is when the team trade mark “defense” took over holding the high powered T-Birds to 11 points, their lowest point total in any quarter this season. The Cascades pulled ahead midway through the quarter and never looked back as they led by two points at the break.
Dulay led all scorers at the intermission with 12 points. Sam Freeman chipped in with 9 points as UFV shot a very impressive 50 percent from the floor in the first half. “I was very pleased with our team’s first half, it was our best performance in the six regular season games,” said Friesen.
The third quarter started with UFV sinking several shots to pull ahead by six points. The game went back and forth for several minutes before UBC started to make a run at the Cascades six point lead.
Midway through the third quarter, UBC came within one point of UFV when the UBC bench was called for a technical foul, Freeman hit the free throws and UFV quickly built up that six point lead again and that was the turning point in the game. UBC had all the momentum until the technical foul swung the game in UFV’s favor. The fourth quarter was all UFV as Kyle Grewal came up with two key rebounds, Nathan Kendall and Kevon Parchment each scored six points and James York recorded 3 of his game high 5 assists to give UFV a double digit lead down the stretch. The Cascades would clinch the victory over UBC with great second half defense and excellent shooting as they hit 53 percent of their shots from the floor.
Freeman led the way with 20 points, York, Kendall and Parchment with 15 each and Dulay a career high 12 points. “I was pleased with our balanced scoring tonight. To have five guys step up and score in double figures against a great team like UBC shows our offense is improving each night we step on the court,” said Friesen. The bench contributed 15 points in the win tonight.
“To go into their building and win after the heart breaking loss on Friday shows the character of our team, I am very proud of the boys tonight,” said a very happy Friesen with his first victory as a head coach over UBC.
UFV 23 17 17 32 = 89 (3-3)
UBC 27 11 15 24 = 77 (5-1)
Notes:
Cascades held UBC to 11 second quarter points-lowest point total by UBC in a quarter this year.
Cascades handed UBC their first league and home loss this season.
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