Men’s Basketball: Cascades rain down threes in blowout win over Pronghorns
An incredible shooting display powered the University of the Fraser Valley men’s basketball team to a 102-81 victory over the Lethbridge Pronghorns on Saturday.
The Cascades (3-3) were coming off a heartbreaking 73-72 defeat on Friday in which a late three-point lead evaporated as Lethbridge’s Brett Warren converted a four-point play in the dying seconds.
Their revenge involved raining fire from beyond the arc.
UFV finished 18-for-34 from three-point range, and eight Cascades hit at least one trey. Leading the way was Parm Bains, who finished 5-for-7 from distance on his way to a game-high 21 points.
Lethbridge (3-5) had an outstanding shooting performance in their own right, but their 10-for-20 effort from downtown paled in comparison to the Cascades’ pyrotechnics.
“Parm and Sukhjot (Bains) hit some tough ones, but for everybody else, they were pretty wide open,” UFV head coach Adam Friesen said afterward. “You can’t control whether the shots go in or out, but I do think our ball movement created a lot of energy and a lot of quality looks.”
“It was the most fun game I’ve played in a while,” Cascades guard Kenan Hadzovic echoed. “When everybody is penetrating, making the extra kick-out, making the extra pass, guys are going to be wide-open.”
The Cascades got off to an inauspicious start defensively as the Pronghorns exploded for 32 first-quarter points, with Scott Mazutinec pouring in 11 in the frame. UFV stayed close, though, with Vick Toor coming off the bench to score six points.
The momentum pivoted the Cascades’ way midway through the second quarter. Lethbridge went up 42-37 after a Kyle Peterson three, but the hosts responded with an 11-0 run to grab a 48-42 lead heading to the break. Parm Bains scored five points during that stretch, Matt Cooley threw down a dunk, and Toor capped the surge with a fast-break finish.
The Cascades continued to pour it on after the break, pushing the lead to 19 points in the third quarter, and they cruised from there, leading by as many as 25 in the fourth.
“We could have forced them off the line a little bit better, but sometimes teams just get hot, right?” Lethbridge coach James McKinnon said. “There’s not much you can really do when they’re hitting threes in our face. 18-for-34, that’s a pretty good clip. You can’t do much better than that.”
Joining Parm Bains in double digits for the Cascades were Sukhjot Bains (13 points), Hadzovic (10) and Jordyn Sekhon (10). Vlad Mihaila chipped in with nine points off the bench. The Cascades finished with 25 assists as a team, with Parm Bains and Sukhjot Bains leading the way with six and five, respectively.
Four Pronghorns scored in double figures: Scott Mazutinec (16), Colton Gibb (15), Chad Oviatt (14) and Kyle Peterson (12).
The Cascades basketball teams wrap up their first-semester schedule on the road next weekend, as they visit the Manitoba Bisons for a Friday-Saturday set.
Women’s Basketball: Cascades dial in defensively to clinch weekend sweep of Pronghorns
The University of the Fraser Valley women’s basketball team outlasted the Lethbridge Pronghorns in a physical slugfest on Saturday evening, grinding out a 59-52 victory to wrap up a weekend sweep.
The Cascades, coming off a 69-58 win on Friday, turned in a strong defensive effort, holding Lethbridge to 30.8 per cent shooting from the field and forcing 29 turnovers.
The Pronghorns, for their part, also did a lot of good things defensively, limiting UFV to 33.3 per cent from the field. But for the second straight night, the Cascades (4-2) got great production from their forwards as Taylor Claggett notched 17 points to go with 10 rebounds and Deanna Tuchscherer scored 14.
Jessica Haenni poured in a game-high 18 points and added four steals for the Pronghorns (5-3), and Jessica Zarowny had 12 points and five boards.
“I’m really happy for the girls tonight,” UFV head coach Al Tuchscherer said. “We had to win a game in a little different style tonight. Lethbridge came out and were pretty assertive right from the beginning. The game was close throughout, and I thought we showed a lot of composure down the stretch to get a really solid win.”
The physical tone of the game was set in the first quarter, with the Pronghorns grabbing an early 6-2 lead, weathering a 7-0 UFV run, and responding with a 7-0 surge of their own. The Cascades would work their way back into the lead, going up by as many as five in the second quarter, but Lethbridge closed to within 25-23 at the break.
Rookie point guard Nikki Cabuco hit a pair of clutch triples midway through the third quarter to help the hosts surge ahead 40-32, and they would repel every Pronghorns flurry from that point. Lethbridge’s Haenni drained a jumper in the paint with less than three minutes left in regulation to draw her team to within 51-49 and put the pressure on the Cascades, but UFV responded with a clutch floater from Maddy Gobeil, a Claggett free throw, and a strong move to the bucket from Tuchscherer to restore a seven-point advantage and seal the result.
Pronghorns head coach Dave Waknuk noted that turnovers were “the backbreaker” for his team.
“It just felt like we could never find flow over the two days,” he said. “We talked a lot about trying to find a tempo or flow, and we just couldn’t find it. You come down, you work your butt off on D, and then you come down and spit the ball up, it’s tough to get anything going.
“That’s the strength of UFV. They play a very physical style that drains you and takes a lot of energy out of you. I think they played their style well, and they executed. I give them credit – they controlled the pace with their physicality on defence and made it tough for us to score.”
Jessica Parker had a strong all-around performance for the Cascades, stuffing the stat sheet with seven points, six steals and five rebounds, while Amanda Thompson (four points) spearheaded a defence that held Pronghorns leading scorer Kacie Bosch off the scoresheet in the first half and limited her to just five points for the game.
“A player like Amanda Thompson maybe doesn’t get her due as a defender in our conference, but I’ve seen her do that for many, many years,” Tuchscherer noted. “When she gets locked into an assignment, she’s as good a defender as we’ve ever had in our program.”
Katie Keith had a big game on the boards for Lethbridge, hauling in a game-high 11 rebounds to go with six points.
The Cascades basketball teams wrap up their first-semester schedule on the road next weekend, as they visit the Manitoba Bisons for a Friday-Saturday set. The Pronghorns, meanwhile, will be coming back to B.C. to face the UBC Thunderbirds.
