A dominant third quarter paved the way for a decisive home-opening win for the University of the Fraser Valley women's basketball team, as they rolled past the UBC Okanagan Heat 78-49 on Friday at the Envision Financial Athletic Centre.
The Cascades outscored the Heat 25-9 in the third, pushing an 11-point halftime lead beyond the 30-point threshold on their way to their first win of the young Canada West season.
Senior forward
Taylor Claggett set the tone for the Cascades (1-2), racking up a game-high 19 points, and rookies
Nikki Cabuco (13 points) and
Deanna Tuchscherer (11 points) also stepped up offensively.
The Heat (1-4) were an injury-riddled group, with five players sidelined due to injury including top scorer Jaeli Ibbetson. They were led on Friday by Jordan Korol (15 points) and Tessa Burton (nine points).
The two teams clash once again on Saturday (5 p.m., EFAC) to wrap up the weekend series.
"It was a good quarter for us, for sure," Cascades head coach
Al Tuchscherer noted afterward. "We got some stops. They had a flurry where they missed some shots that maybe they would normally hit, and I think we just built off of that momentum.
"It was a pretty balanced attack for us tonight – we got contributions from a lot of different players. UBCO is really hurting with some injuries right now, and we benefitted from that a little bit, for sure. They played hard, but just missing that many kids is pretty tough."
Playing in front of an enthusiastic partisan crowd at the EFAC, the Cascades built a 17-13 lead at the end of the first quarter, then pushed it to double digits in the second as Claggett put on a clinic in the post. The Mission, B.C. product scored eight straight UFV points in one stretch to help her team to a 33-22 lead at the break.
The Cascades opened the third on a 14-2 run, and they were off to the races from there. Point guard Cabuco was a dynamic presence during the game's decisive stretch, and finished 3-for-5 from beyond the arc.
"I thought Nikki played her role perfectly tonight,"
Al Tuchscherer said. "She came off the bench and really gave us a spark at both ends of the floor – hit some shots that really broke the game open. That was fun to watch, for sure."
UBCO head coach Bobby Mitchell noted that having so many players sidelined made it "a little bit difficult."
"But we've got to be able to find a way to compete and be better," he said.
"In the first two-three minutes of the third quarter, we missed three easy shots we need to make. We didn't make those baskets, and then Fraser Valley came down and hit a three, got a putback. When you're down 11 and they score those five points, all of a sudden it's 16, and it just took the wind out of our sails and we couldn't get it back."
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