Abbotsford, B.C.—The UFV Cascades never trailed versus the Trinity Western Spartans as the Cascades picked up their first home win of the season defeating the Spartans 75-67 Saturday night at the Envision Athletic Centre.
The Cascades stormed out of the gate jumping out to a 21-2 lead as they dominated the first quarter finishing it with a 23-7 advantage. The Spartans had a much better second quarter, but still trailed 35-28 at the half. TWU closed the gap after three quarters to 58-54, leading to a fourth quarter that saw UFV simply not let the Spartans get any closer than one point.
Cascade 5th year senior and the CIS current leading scorer Jane Meadwell had a monster game Saturday night, a game in which she was honoured as a graduating player in her final year of CIS eligibility. Though for Meadwell, her performance wasn’t what was important “It wasn’t critical to have a big game, my focus was to get a win” said Meadwell. Jane was, however, absolutely clutch down the stretch as she went 4 for 4 from the line in the last minute of the game and nabbed two big rebounds in the final 18 seconds. She finished the game with a double, double scoring 24 points and adding 12 rebounds. Meadwell also remarkably played the entire game as she depended upon timeouts, and quarter breaks for rest.
Two other Cascades with big games were second year forward Lauren Rieu and first year guard Aieisha Luyken who both chipped in with 14 points. Rieu also hit two big free throws with a minute to play in the game when the Spartans were within 6.
Cascades head coach Al Tuchscherer has this to say regarding his team’s performance Saturday night: “This was the team effort that we have been looking for all season. Jane had a great night on senior night willing us to victory while some of our young kids really stepped up: Tess and Courtney hit some key shots, Aieisha had her best game as a Cascade, Nicole was a pain at the defensive end all night and Lauren really got it done at both ends. We’ve been painting a vision all year – it was nice to see some of that shine through tonight. I’m really proud that the team continued to work hard right until the last game. The girls continued working hard right to the end with nothing but pride on the line really throughout January and February.”
The two teams finished a weekend double header which TWU won game one 64-54 Friday night. The Spartans on Saturday night were led by Emily Knauff who scored 13 points. Tiffany Olsen and Keely Goertzen also both picked up 12 points for TWU.
The Cascades (2-15) and Spartans (5-12) both have one game remaining in the 2009-2010 CIS season. UFV will welcome SFU (16-0) to Abbotsford on Feb 17th at 7:00pm, while TWU will travel to UBC (10-7) Feb 13th at 6:00pm
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