Abbotsford, BC – Men’s Basketball: Parchment’s Pippen-esque performance paces Cascades past Cougars
A monster outing from Kevon Parchment led the University of the Fraser Valley men’s basketball team to an 89-75 home-court victory over the Mount Royal Cougars on Friday evening.
The Cascades’ fifth-year swingman from Scarborough, Ont. has made a habit of stuffing the stat sheet throughout the course of his UFV career, but Friday was special even by his standards. Parchment not only poured in a game-high 28 points on 11-of-18 shooting from the field, he also racked up 14 rebounds, six assists, six steals and two blocks.
Afterward, Cascades head coach Adam Friesen invoked the name of one of the NBA’s all-time greats as he reflected on Parchment’s big night.
“He did a Scottie Pippen impersonation out there,” Friesen marveled, alluding to the Chicago Bulls’ versatile superstar who earned six NBA championships alongside Michael Jordan in the 1990s. “Every area of the box score, he was present.
“And he led our team. First game coming out of the break, some teams need to find a boost to kind of get back into it. We needed one, and Kevon was there to give us one in a big way.”
The Cascades (6-3) and Cougars (2-7) lock horns again on Saturday evening (7 p.m., Envision Athletic Centre).
On Friday, UFV built a double-digit lead midway through the first quarter, but couldn’t pull away from the scrappy Cougars until the late going. The visitors clawed back to within six points in the third quarter, but the hosts responded with a 12-3 run to get the lead back up to 15, and they pushed the lead as high as 19 in the fourth.
When it wasn’t Parchment answering a Mount Royal run with a tough step-back jumper, it was Manny Dulay (19 points, 5-for-10 from three-point range) or Vijay Dhillon (13 points, 3-for-8 from three) swishing a shot from beyond the arc to keep the Cougars at bay. Brandon Burke (11 points) also scored in double figures for the Cascades.
Brett Layton, Mount Royal’s outstanding rookie forward, led his team with 19 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks, while Ryan Cunningham (12 points) and Glen Yang (10 points) also chipped in offensively.
“They never give up,” Friesen said of the Cougars. “We’ve learned that against them the last couple years. They’re a really well-coached team that just continues to battle and scrap away.
“First game coming out of the break, we knew we were going to be inconsistent with our game. But I think the parts that were good, were pretty good. We’ve just got to get back into the swing of things.”
BOUNCE PASSES: Cascades forward Nate Brown returned to the lineup on Friday – he’d been sidelined since suffering an ankle injury in UFV’s conference opener on Nov. 6. He posted three points in 20 minutes of game action.
Women’s Basketball: Red-hot start powers Cascades to victory over Cougars
A dominant first quarter gave the University of the Fraser Valley women’s basketball team the momentum they needed to begin the second half of the season on a winning note.
The Cascades, opening their 2016 schedule in front of their home fans at the Envision Athletic Centre, blitzed the visiting Mount Royal Cougars 25-5 in the opening frame. The visitors mounted a strong push in the second half, but UFV’s advantage proved insurmountable in a 73-58 victory.
The Cascades (5-4) and the Cougars (1-8) renew hostilities on Saturday evening at 5 p.m. at the Envision Athletic Centre.
“It was the start that we wanted – we were energized, we played some tough D, and we were sharing the ball,” analyzed Cascades head coach Al Tuchscherer, whose team was up 41-16 at halftime. “It was a great way to start the second half of the season.
“The second half of the game wasn’t very good for us, and we need to learn to play for 40 minutes. That’s definitely something we need to take away from this game and continue to work on. It’s not just good enough to play quality basketball for 20 minutes. We need to put it together for 40 minutes, and tonight we didn’t do that.”
Rookie forward Taylor Claggett set the tone offensively for the Cascades – she racked up a career-high 23 points in exceedingly efficient fashion, shooting 9-for-10 from the field and 5-for-5 from the free throw line.
Canada West scoring leader Kayli Sartori chipped in with 17 points, and fellow fourth-year player Katie Brink celebrated her return to the lineup by scoring 13 points and hauling down seven rebounds. The 6’2” forward had missed all of the Cascades’ conference games in the first semester due to a knee injury.
Mount Royal cut the deficit to 13 points with just over four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, and Becky Nash, the Cougars’ towering 6’4” centre, paced her team’s comeback effort with 14 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks. Angela Driscoll (10 points) also scored in double figures.
Tuchscherer was pleased to see Claggett continue her strong rookie campaign, and with Brink’s return to the court.
“Taylor was fantastic tonight,” he said. “It’s exciting to see her have that production even on a night where we bring Katie Brink back into the lineup. She needs to find different ways to score, and she did that tonight and that’s exciting.
“Katie’s a great talent, and another experienced player for us. You saw her take two charges tonight for us – that’s a big part of her game. She has the ability to impact the game on both ends of the court, and you saw flashes of that tonight. By no means was that her best performance, but it was a start, and it was really nice to have her back.”
Men’s Volleyball: No. 1-ranked Chargers fend off Cascades’ upset bid, claw out five-set win
For the second time this season, the University of the Fraser Valley men’s volleyball team came within a whisker of spoiling the Camosun Chargers’ undefeated record.
But the Chargers, who hold the No. 1 spot in the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) national rankings, foiled the No. 15-ranked Cascades’ upset bid on Friday evening, much like they did the last time the two teams met back on Nov. 14 in Victoria.
In the earlier match-up, UFV won the first two sets, only to watch the Chargers claw their way back to win each of the next three sets by the minimum two points.
On Friday, playing before a raucous partisan crowd at UFV’s Student Activity Centre, the Cascades went up two sets to one, but couldn’t finish the job. Camosun prevailed (23-25, 25-21, 21-25, 25-22, 15-12) to push their PacWest leading record to 13-0, while the third-place Cascades fell to 7-6.
“The opportunity was there,” Cascades head coach Kyle Donen noted afterward. “I think we let a couple balls slip away where I’d say normally we wouldn’t let that happen. In the end, it was some of our own errors that really hurt us.
“But I still don’t think we can be overly disappointed. That’s the first game back after a long break. We played well against the top team in the nation, and they had to throw everything at us to beat us.”
Given the electric atmosphere and emotional nature of Friday’s game, Saturday’s rematch (3 p.m., Student Activity Centre) is a must-see.
The Cascades claimed two of the first three sets, with the dynamic attacking of right side Joel Kleingeltink setting the tone. They fell behind by five points in the fourth set before rallying to tie, but the Chargers pulled away late to extend the match.
The fifth set was an emotional roller-coaster. UFV built an 8-6 lead, but Camosun scored the next five points to surge ahead 11-8. The Cascades mounted a rally of their own to draw even at 12-12, but the Chargers reeled off three points in a row to close out the match.
“I think we need to be the same on Saturday, and recognize that when we have our chances, we need to be better at finishing it off,” Donen said. “Other than a slow start in the fourth set, where we came back and almost took them, we’re right there.”
Women’s Volleyball: Cascades knock off No. 9-ranked Chargers
The University of the Fraser Valley women’s volleyball team opened the second semester in impressive fashion, knocking off the No. 9-ranked team in the nation in three straight sets.
The Cascades defeated the Camosun Chargers 25-18, 25-23, 25-18 at the Student Activity Centre on the UFV Abbotsford campus on Friday.
Head coach Mike Gilray’s squad improved to 5-8, good for fifth place in the PacWest, while the second-place Chargers fell to 8-5.
The splashy result notwithstanding, Gilray came away convinced his team still has more to give. The potential for improvement bodes well for the Cascades heading into Saturday afternoon’s rematch with the Chargers (1 p.m., Student Activity Centre).
“It wasn’t our best game,” asserted Gilray, noting that his team spotted Camosun a 6-0 lead to start the second set before rallying to win it. “We served above our standard, which was nice, and I think that put them in some pressure.
“But I think that was the biggest thing that came out of our meeting after the game – the team said, too, that we didn’t play at the level we can.”
UFV’s left sides, Kelly Robertson and Rachel Funk, both had big games. Robertson pounded a team-high nine kills, while Funk registered seven kills and five aces to account for a team-leading 12 total points. Setter Nicole Blandford was a force defensively, posting 12 digs.
“I think Camosun’s a little under the weather right now – they’ve got some injuries, they lost some players from the first half,” Gilray said. “But they’re the ninth-ranked team, and you’re not the ninth-ranked team without being deep. We still had to beat good players tonight, and any win in this league is good because it’s a tough league to win in.
“We believe we can get better tomorrow, and hopefully continue to put that pressure on. They’re going to come back fighting.”
