For the second year in a row, the University of the Fraser Valley women's basketball team saw its season come to an end in Victoria.

Amira Giannattasio led the charge for the hosts, scoring 22 of her game-high 26 points in the first half as the No. 7-seeded Victoria Vikes knocked off the No. 10 Cascades 80-61 in their Canada West first-round single-elimination clash on Friday evening.

Taylor Claggett responded with 16 points, five assists and five rebounds for the Cascades.

"They (the Vikes) execute very well, and they've got players who can really make shots and make tough plays – they're a good team," UFV head coach Al Tuchscherer said afterward.

"I was really proud of the effort tonight. We kept fighting. Going into the fourth quarter we were down 20, and it could have gone either way, but they kept battling and kept supporting each other, and that's a really good sign for us going forward."

The Cascades had a steady start, leading 5-3 three minutes into the first quarter after Amanda Thompson knocked down a triple. The Vikes, though, would end the frame on a 17-4 run, with Giannattasio scoring 11 points during that stretch.

UFV would get back to within 25-18 in the second quarter after Kate Head hit back-to-back treys, but the Vikes responded by scoring the next six points and took a 39-23 lead into halftime.

UVic stretched the lead to 20 in the third, and while the Cascades battled to deflate the deficit, the offensively potent hosts were able to answer every surge with one of their own.
Head posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds, and Thompson and Natalie Rathler scored seven points apiece.

Morgan Roskelley sparked the Vikes off the bench with 17 points, while Ashlyn Day, Katie Langdon and Calli McMillan scored 10 apiece.

The good news for a relatively youthful Cascades squad is, every player on their roster is eligible to return – fourth-year Claggett was the team's most veteran player this season. Additionally, rookies like Rathler, Abby Zawada and Madeline Beerwald all played key minutes this season and got great experience, and the team will be further augmented by an outstanding 2019 recruiting class.

"The past two weekends, with Trinity Western last week and Vic this week, we were really hurt by veteran players, fourth and fifth years," Tuchscherer noted. "That's typically what happens in Canada West. But the good news for us is, our team is really maturing. If we can learn from this, it's going to be really positive moving forward."