Vick Toor and the University of the Fraser Valley men's basketball team delivered a victory for head coach
Joe Enevoldson in his first Canada West conference game at the helm of the Cascades, blitzing the UBC Okanagan Heat 85-63 on Friday night in Abbotsford.
The Cascades built a double-digit lead in the first quarter and didn't look back, and it was Toor lighting the fuse. The fourth-year point guard racked up a game-high 24 points highlighted by 4-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc, to go with nine rebounds, five assists and three steals as the UFV squad won with ease at the UFV Athletic Centre.
The Cascades (1-0) continue their opening-weekend homestand on Saturday vs. the UNBC Timberwolves (7 p.m., CanadaWest.tv presented by Co-op), while the Heat (0-1) visit the Thompson Rivers WolfPack in Kamloops.
"It was more about the guys, in all fairness," Enevoldson said, reflecting what it meant to win in his Cascades debut. "I've coached in a lot of basketball games, and some are more exciting than others. I've won some of those, I've lost some of those, so I didn't get too worked up about that. It was just nice to kind of get out and coach basketball, and it was great for our guys to get out and play in a meaningful game and truly get better.
"I thought the effort, especially in the first half, was really good. We were rolling – we got out and ran in transition really well, and we rebounded the ball really well in the first quarter.
"Quite frankly, we still have a lot of room to get better. We all have to buy into what we're trying to do, and if we do that, chances are we're going to be a tough out. Overall, a good effort tonight."
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Toor got the Cascades off to a solid start, snaring a defensive rebound and taking it coast-to-coast for a layup. Later in the frame, he keyed a 12-2 UFV surge, scoring eight straight Cascade points as the hosts went up 24-13 at the end of the quarter.
Zubair Seyed had a big second quarter for the Cascades, scoring nine points in the frame as the UFV lead ballooned to 23 at the break (47-24).
The hosts cruised from there – the lead was never smaller than 15 points the rest of the way, and
Dario Lopez and
Aidan Wilson hammered down dunks in the late going to punctuate the win and fire up the home crowd.
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In the end, 11 Cascades hit the scoresheet – Seyed finished with 11 points in just 15 minutes, and Lopez scored 13.
Gus Goerzen led the Heat with 14 points, Jalen Shirley scored 13, and Imoudu Ibrahim had 10.
Toor dominated throughout – in addition to his gaudy counting stats, he was also a +30 on the night.
"I think he really showed his leadership tonight," Enevoldson said of Toor. "People have looked at him as a non-shooter throughout the course of his career, and it's something we've talked about a lot. He shot the ball well tonight – 4-for-5 from three – and he's a crafty scorer, for sure. I'd like to see him cut down on his live-ball turnovers a bit . . . so there's areas for growth. But he's really bought into being the go-to scorer, or one of the go-to scorers."
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