The University of the Fraser Valley women's basketball team endured a scoring drought in the second quarter, but shook it off in emphatic fashion, pulling away for a 73-54 win over the Thompson Rivers WolfPack on Friday evening.
Playing at the UFV Athletic Centre, the Cascades watched the visitors catch fire in the second quarter and grab a 33-29 lead at the half. It was all UFV after the break, though, and they went on to win in blowout fashion.
The Cascades (4-1) and WolfPack (0-5) renew hostilities on Saturday in a rare afternoon start (3 p.m., CanadaWest.tv) at the UFV Athletic Centre. It's UFV's final home game of the fall semester.
"All the credit goes to Thompson Rivers – they came out with a lot of energy, and you could see it right from their warm-up," Cascades head coach
Al Tuchscherer said, reflecting on his team's slow start. "They came at us tonight, particularly in that second quarter. From our standpoint, I didn't think we even remotely stuck to the game plan. We wanted to play this game from the inside out (on offence), and we were playing from the outside in.
"In the second half, we became a little bit more mentally sharp and we stuck to what the plan was, and we had some success with it."
The Cascades got off to a strong start, building a 21-10 lead in the first quarter with
Deanna Tuchscherer and
Google Sidhu scoring six points apiece. But the WolfPack ended the frame with a buzzer-beating three-pointer from the centre-court logo by Jessica Orr, and that bucket seemed to spark the visitors as they caught fire in the second quarter. They out-scored the Cascades 20-8 in the quarter to grab a 33-29 halftime lead, with Orr pouring in 17 points over the opening 20 minutes.
The WolfPack had a solid start to the third quarter, leading 38-31 after five quick points from Anneke Cairnie, but the Cascades responded with a 16-0 run to change the complexion of the game entirely. Natalie Rather's energy on defence and the boards fueled the UFV surge, and the third-year centre added five points during that stretch.
"Nat's turned into a real presence for us,"
Al Tuchscherer noted afterward. "We love her energy, we love her almost recklessness out there. She's not afraid to put her body on the line. Her ability to rebound, take charges, and be everywhere, it's huge for us when she's playing that way."
It was more of the same in the fourth quarter, as the Cascades pushed the lead beyond the 20-point mark.
Deanna Tuchscherer racked up a game-high 26 points to go with 12 rebounds, and
Victoria Jacobse had a huge night as well. The versatile senior matched her career-high with 12 points, and came within a rebound of tying her career-high in that department as well, collecting 11 caroms for the double-double.
Rathler finished with nine points, seven boards and four assists, and
Julia Tuchscherer had eight points and a team-best seven assists.
Orr's 19 points were a team-high for TRU, and Danijela Kovacevic added 14.
