Standout performances from Taylor Claggett and Kate Head sparked the University of the Fraser Valley women's basketball team to a big road win over the MacEwan Griffins.

Fourth-year power forward Taylor Claggett was an absolute menace, racking up a huge double-double with 17 points and 18 rebounds. Third-year point guard Head posted a career-high 16 points, two assists, two rebounds and two steals in the victory.

The Cascades (3-4) and Griffins (1-6) clash again on Saturday (5 p.m. Mountain, 4 p.m. Pacific, CanadaWest.tv).

"I was really happy for Kate," UFV head coach Al Tuchscherer said afterward. "We really challenged her this week to step up her game, particularly offensively, and she really did tonight. She did a lot of the things we know she can. I hope we continue to see that moving forward.

"Taylor is doing a lot of really good things for us right now. Obviously she's a great rebounder and she has been for a while, and she always finds ways to score. But just her confidence – bringing the ball up the floor, relieving pressure, and at the defensive end – has come a long way. It's been a lot of fun watching her evolve into this elite player."

UFV made things tough right from the opening tip-off for MacEwan. The visitors led 19-7 in the first quarter as Claggett made an early impact. She scored eight points in the opening 10 minutes and made some key defensive plays.

Head sparked the Cascades throughout in the first half, going 3-for-3 from beyond the arc en route to 13 points over the first 20 minutes of play. That matched her career high, which had also been set against the Griffins, back on Nov. 13, 2015.

The Cascades led 35-17 at the break, but the offence bogged down a bit in the third quarter, as MacEwan outscored them 11-8 in the frame. The UFV squad perked back up in the fourth, maintaining a double-digit cushion through the final buzzer. Rookie guard Abby Zawada chipped in with eight points and four assists for UFV.

"We've got a lot of holes to plug offensively right now, and we addressed some of those things tonight with a pretty energized first half," Tuchscherer said. "We pushed the ball a little bit, we got some good shots, we got some inside and some outside. The next thing to address is putting it together for an entire game."

The Griffins mustered just 24.6 per cent shooting from the field to UFV's 33.3. Shannon Majeau led MacEwan with eight points and six rebounds, Kristen Monfort-Palomino scored seven, and Hannah Gibb and Mady Chamberlin chipped in with six points each off the bench.

"It seems to be a common story that we're having a difficult time putting the ball in the hook. It's not that we're not getting good looks, we're just not finishing. We rush and panic and throw it off the glass," said Griffins head coach Katherine Adams.

"Our start really put us in a hole. It's always tough when you're playing from behind. In the first quarter we were down 12, and no team is going to lay down and let you back in it."

- with files from Jason Hills, for MacEwan Athletics