An epic comeback effort ran out of gas in the fourth quarter for the University of the Fraser Valley women's basketball team, as they fell 77-62 on the road to the Winnipeg Wesmen on Friday as the Canada West regular season opened.
The Wesmen had a strong first quarter, racing out to a 24-11 lead, and surged ahead by as many as 18 points in the third. The Cascades battled back to cut the deficit to 58-54 with six and a half minutes left in regulation, but the hosts answered with an 11-0 run to salt the game away.
The Cascades get another crack at the Wesmen on Saturday to conclude the weekend series (5 p.m. PT, CanadaWest.tv).
"I just don't think we understand what it takes to win at this level yet," UFV head coach
Al Tuchscherer said afterward. "We're not doing the little things – when we made those runs, we just needed to dig in a little bit and get a stop, and we just couldn't put another stop together.
"They beat us to a lot of 50-50 balls tonight, and you can't win games if those sorts of things are happening. We'll reload and learn, and be ready to go again tomorrow."
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After Cascades senior
Taylor Claggett opened the game with a pair of free throws, the Wesmen responded with 11 straight points, highlighted by five from Lena Wenke. The Cascades found some traction in the second quarter, outscoring Winnipeg 17-13 in the frame, but trailed 37-28 at the break.
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The Wesmen held the Cascades off the scoreboard for the first five minutes of the third, expanding the lead to 46-28 in the process. UFV found its footing, though, outscoring the Wesmen 26-12 over the next nine minutes, capped by a Claggett and-one layup to cut the deficit to 58-54.
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Winnipeg took over that that point, scoring the next 11 points to seal the opening-night win.
Afterward, Tuchscherer noted that his team's slow start was costly.
"It's been an ongoing thing throughout the preseason, where we come out at the start of games quite flat," he said. "It's already bit us a couple times. It's an ongoing challenge for us that we've got to figure out pretty quick."
Claggett stuffed the stat sheet for the Cascades, with 19 points, 14 rebounds and five assists. Rookies
Maddy Gobeil (11 points) and
Jessica Parker (10 points, seven boards) chipped in off the bench.
Faith Hezekiah paced the Wesmen with 23 points and 15 boards, Anna Kernaghan counted a trio of triples among her 20 points, and Wenke scored 16.
- with files from David Larkins, Wesmen Athletics
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