Friday, Feb. 14: Cascades (16-4, No. 5 seed in Canada West) vs. Thompson Rivers WolfPack (7-13, No. 12 seed in Canada West), 6 p.m.
Envision Financial Athletic Centre
Webcast: CanadaWest.tv presented by Co-op

THE MATCH-UP

The Cascades and WolfPack are familiar with one another to a degree rarely seen in playoff opponents. They've played four times this season already, with UFV prevailing in all four. The Cascades won a pair of preseason games in Abbotsford (55-53 on Oct. 18, and 85-46 on Oct. 19), and swept a recent regular-season series in Kamloops (75-50 on Jan. 31, and 91-76 on Feb. 1). Friday's game is single-elimination, with the winner advancing to the Canada West quarter-finals.

RECENT FORM

The Cascades are red-hot coming into the playoffs – their current 11-game win streak is the second-longest in the nation, trailing only the 14-game streak of the U SPORTS No. 1-ranked Ottawa GeeGees. The WolfPack – making their first Canada West playoff appearance since 2016 – lost their last six games of the regular season, including those two losses to UFV.

KEY STAT

+3.8 – The Cascades' rebounding margin, good for fifth in Canada West. Thompson Rivers, by way of contrast, ranked last that category at -10.9. UFV's ability to continue their strong play on the boards will be crucial on Friday.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Deanna Tuchscherer, UFV – The 6'1" Cascades forward's performance this season is worthy of strong consideration for both the Canada West and U SPORTS rookie of the year awards. Tuchscherer's 15.4 points per game set a new team record for rookie scoring, and she led all Canada West rookies and finished 10th overall in that department, while adding 6.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists.

Emma Piggin, TRU – The 5'10" guard has excelled over five years with her hometown WolfPack. This season she finished second in team scoring (11.4 points per game) while leading TRU in rebounding (6.3 per game).

QUOTABLE

"Us older players especially, we want to come in and prove a point that we can play with the best teams. We've lost the last two years in the first round, so we want to obviously go as far as we can this year to make up for that sour taste in our mouths. The playoffs are different. Teams elevate to a new level – they've been working on things all year and they know what works and what doesn't. You might have played them during the year, but you play them in playoffs, and they could be a totally different team." – UFV fifth-year forward Taylor Claggett, on how the regular season differs from the playoffs

"The thing we've learned the most (playing TRU this season) is that the first night and second night can be a whole different story, and now there is no second night. It's just one game to prove what you can do. . . . We're going to be going back to see what worked and what didn't work, and they're going to be doing the same. It'll be interesting to see who's made what adjustments." – Claggett, on what her team learned about the WolfPack over four previous meetings