A big night from Brad King sparked the Thompson Rivers WolfPack to a 69-63 come-from-behind win over the University of the Fraser Valley men's basketball team on Friday evening in Abbotsford.
King, the WolfPack's 6'9" third-year centre from Australia, had a huge double-double (24 points, 14 rebounds), highlighted by 5-for-8 shooting from beyond the arc as TRU erased a 10-point third-quarter deficit.
The Cascades (2-3) look to get even with the WolfPack (3-2) on Saturday in their final home game prior to the Christmas break. Tip-off is at 5 p.m. at the UFV Athletic Centre.
"They're a team that wants to keep it in the 60s, and they did a great job on the offensive glass creating multiple opportunities for themselves," noted Cascades head coach
Joe Enevoldson, alluding to the WolfPack's 18 offensive rebounds on the night. "We didn't do a good job of taking care of the defensive glass."
Friday's first half was closely contested, with the two teams deadlocked 18-18 at the end of the first quarter and UFV holding a modest 35-33 edge at the break.
The Cascades were able to create some separation in the third quarter, going on an 11-2 run highlighted by four points from
Vick Toor to go up 46-37. Another 6-2 mini-surge, capped by a
Zubair Seyed layup, pushed the margin to double digits at 54-44 with 1:38 left in the frame.
King ended the quarter with five straight points, though, including a pair of free throws to cap a possession where the WolfPack collected three offensive boards, to close the deficit to 54-49.
TRU would put together an 11-0 run early in the fourth to take control, with Simon Crossfield scoring eight straight points and King capping the run with a triple. The visitors would go on to outscore the Cascades 20-9 in the final frame.
Kyle Claggett (14 points), Toor (13 points, nine rebounds, four assists) and
Jordyn Sekhon (10 points) scored in double figures for the Cascades, while Crossfield (17) and Brendan Sullivan (10) joined forces with King in leading the WolfPack offensively.
"We had a good little run there, but we sabotaged ourselves with a tech, and you can't do that against anybody in this conference because quite frankly, they'll beat you," Enevoldson noted afterward.
"King is an older guy, really physical, and he did a great job on the offensive and defensive glass. He hit some timely threes for them, and our bigs have to do a better job guarding the three-point line. We'll take a look at our three-point coverage and see what we've got to do differently."
Â
