Men’s Basletball: Win streak hits seven as Cascades pull away from Cougars
Parm Bains bounced back from his worst long-distance shooting night of the season, pouring in 27 points to spark the University of the Fraser Valley men’s basketball team to a 95-86 road win over the Mount Royal Cougars on Saturday.
Bains, the Canada West leader in three-pointers, endured a 1-for-11 performance from beyond the arc in Friday’s 86-82 win over the Cougars. He was back in rhythm for Saturday’s rematch, knocking down four triples and handing out five assists as the Cascades (10-6) erased a halftime deficit to run their win streak to seven games.
Mount Royal (3-13) got a game-high 30 points from Matthew Guinto, but mustered just 38.7 per cent shooting from the field as a team.
“He struggled a little bit in the first quarter, but he really came alive in the second half and gave us a spark offensively,” Cascades head coach Adam Friesen said of Bains. “He’s a veteran player, a fifth-year guy, and he’s been through the grind of past seasons and knows how valuable each win is in Canada West.
“Any time you can get two wins on the road, you’re satisfied. We’re happy to keep our momentum going into Kamloops next week.”
The Cascades caught fire midway through the first quarter, unfurling a 12-2 run to seize a 24-13 lead. Matt Cooley found match-ups he liked in the post and scored eight points in the frame, and Jordyn Sekhon scored six off the bench.
The Cougars turned the tables in the second, racking up 28 points to take a 41-38 edge into the break. Guinto lit the fuse, scoring 15 points in the quarter.
UFV got rolling in the third quarter – Jaskarn Bajwa capped an 11-2 surge with a fast-break dunk, and the visitors took a 64-57 lead into the fourth.
The final frame was high-scoring, with the Cascades surrendering 29 points but countering with 31 at the offensive end. UFV led by as many as 12, and while MRU would cut the deficit to 86-81 on a Guinto trey with just over two minutes left in regulation, the Cascades were never in serious danger in the dying minutes.
Cooley finished with 16 points, while Sukhjot Bains (12 points, 15 rebounds) and Daniel Adediran (12 points, 12 rebounds) both registered double-doubles for the Cascades.
Adam Pahl (16) and Nate Petrone (12) joined Guinto as double-digit scorers for the Cougars.
The UFV basketball teams are on the road again next weekend, heading to Kamloops to face the Thompson Rivers WolfPack in a Friday/Saturday set.
Women’s Basketball: Defensive adjustments key as Cascades rally past Cougars
It was a proverbial tale of two halves for the University of the Fraser Valley women’s basketball team on Saturday, as they outlasted the Mount Royal Cougars 69-63 in Calgary.
In the first half, the Cascades struggled to get defensive stops – the Cougars poured in 40 points over the opening 20 minutes, going 7-for-11 from beyond the arc, and took a 40-33 lead into halftime.
After the break, though, UFV (12-4) tightened things up considerably, limiting Mount Royal (5-11) to 12 points in the third quarter and 11 in the fourth, thus extending their winning streak to seven games.
“You’ve got to give credit to Mount Royal – they came out with a lot of fire,” said Cascades head coach Al Tuchscherer, whose team had beaten the Cougars handily on Friday, 83-57. “They were excited about getting a win here tonight, and they came hard at us with their dribble-drive motion. We were just trying to put too much pressure on their kids who were attacking, and it was leading to way too many open threes and they were knocking down too many. The second half, we wanted to take the rhythm away from their shooters.”
The Cougars were red-hot in the first half, shooting 47 per cent from the field and 63.6 per cent from beyond the arc. Four different Mount Royal players connected from three-point range, with Jenika Martens, Jordan Blaskin and Marnie Garner swishing two apiece, and the Cascades were on their heels defensively for much of the half.
UFV opened the third quarter on a 15-7 surge, capped by five straight points from Alexis Worrell, to grab a 48-47 lead, and they took a 56-52 advantage into the fourth.
Yet the Cougars wouldn’t quit. The Cascades led by as many as six in the final frame, but MRU battled back to level the score 61-61 on Charity Marlatt’s layup with 3:15 remaining. UFV, though, closed on an 8-2 run.
Canada West scoring leader Taylor Claggett posted her third straight game of 20-plus points, pouring in a game-high 24 to go with five rebounds. Deanna Tuchscherer scored 16 points and Maddy Gobeil added 11.
Martens and Garner tied for team-high honours with 14 points apiece for the Cougars.
“It was an absolutely vital learning experience for us here this weekend,” Al Tuchscherer said. “They’re an improved team that has some quality wins. We’re telling our team we need to stay focused for 40 minutes both games, and we got away from that a little bit tonight. Fortunately we were able to make some adjustments on the fly, or we’d be walking away with a loss.”
The Cascades basketball teams are on the road again next weekend, heading to Kamloops to face the Thompson Rivers WolfPack in a Friday/Saturday set.
Men’s Volleyball: Cascades drop three-set decision to Chargers
The Camosun Chargers caught fire in a couple of pivotal moments, allowing them to close out a weekend sweep of the University of the Fraser Valley men’s volleyball team in Victoria on Saturday afternoon.
The Cascades (5-14), coming off a four-set loss on Friday, dropped the rematch by scores of 25-16, 25-14, 25-22. Camosun improved to 12-7.
“We did start a little bit better than last night,” Cascades head coach Nathan Bennett said afterward. “But it seems like in each set, there’s one rotation that gets us. It comes down to being a little bit more engaged in the moment to side-out.
“When we were in rhythm, everything was pretty good. But those moments were too far between. Camosun played really well and showed their depth, which was impressive. We fought hard, and at the end of the day, they were the better team.”
The Cascades, indeed, had a brighter start than they did on Friday, but Camosun’s Brendan Folkerts swung the momentum with a five-point service run – featuring three straight aces – to give the hosts a 13-7 lead, and they pulled away from there.
The second set followed a similar script, but this time it was Graham Basi boosting the Chargers from the service line. He served for nine straight points, with UFV attack errors greasing the skids, as Camosun grabbed an 18-8 advantage en route to the win.
The Cascades were much more efficient offensively the third set, building an 18-15 lead after Justin Peleshytyk hammered an ace and a kill in quick succession. But the Chargers responded with a 7-1 surge to reclaim control, and while UFV would draw back to within 23-22 after a Dylan Neudorf kill, Camosun wrapped things up on a Vitor Pereira kill.
Caleb Kastelein (eight kills) and Landon Uy (seven kills) were the Cascades’ most prolific attackers, and Uy added two aces. Setter Graham Walkey registered 21 assists.
Folkerts, Pereira and Dale MacDonell tied for team-high honours with seven kills apiece for the Chargers.
The Cascades volleyball teams return home for a Friday, Jan. 31 date with the Capilano Blues (women 6 p.m., men 8 p.m.).
Women’s Volleyball: Chargers wrap up sweep of Cascades
The University of the Fraser Valley women’s volleyball team never got on track offensively on Saturday afternoon, falling in three sets on the road to the Camosun Chargers.
The Cascades, coming off a hard-fought five-set loss in Friday’s opener, struggled on the attack in the rematch, piling up 27 hitting errors vs. just 15 kills. That was not a recipe for success against the nation’s No. 7-ranked team, as Camosun (14-5) topped the No. 13 Cascades (8-11) by scores of 25-15, 25-10 and 25-13.
“We did a little bit better job on serve receive (than on Friday) . . . but we need our attackers to figure out how to score points,” UFV head coach Janelle Rozema noted. “Our outside attackers really have a mission when they get back to work on Monday, working on their all-around games. We need them to pass better, score points better, and block better. The good news is we have a to-do list, and we’ll get back at it on Monday.”
In the first set, the Chargers steadily pulled away, with UFV hitting errors snuffing any chance of building momentum. In the second, Camosun’s Hannah May went on an epic 13-point service run, highlighted by three aces, to stake her team to an insurmountable 18-4 lead. The third set was tied 8-8 before the Chargers’ Katie Wayling reeled off a service run of her own, aided by four straight Cascades errors, to stretch the lead to 16-8, and the hosts kept UFV at bay from there.
Sophomore middle Alysha Cooper was the Cascades’ most efficient attacker, with four kills on six swings, and Amanda Matsui’s nine digs were a team-high.
Rayelle Zacharuk (eight kills) and May (six kills) sparked the hosts offensively, and the Chargers registered 10 aces as a team.
The Cascades volleyball teams return home for a Friday, Jan. 31 date with the Capilano Blues (women 6 p.m., men 8 p.m.).
