The University of the Fraser Valley men's basketball team turned in a blue-collar defensive effort against Canada West's highest-scoring team, but were unable to muster much offence themselves in a 70-64 road loss to the UBC Thunderbirds.
The T-Birds came in averaging 95.5 points per game in early-season Canada West action, but the Cascades were able to smother them for much of the night, limiting the hosts to 34.8 per cent shooting from the field.
At the other end of the floor, though, UFV shot just 29.4 per cent themselves, including 3-for-27 from beyond the arc, and those shooting struggles were the difference.
The Cascades (2-1) and Thunderbirds (3-0) wrap up the weekend set at War Memorial Gym on Saturday (7 p.m., CanadaWest.tv).
"You expend a ton of energy when you play with that intensity on the defensive end, and we didn't have our legs on offence in terms of shooting the basketball," UFV head coach
Joe Enevoldson said. "When you play a team like that, you have to determine whether you want to score with them or whether you grind it out. They're a high-scoring outfit, and with us being a bit shorthanded tonight, I thought we did a good job of grinding it out."
The Cascades sprinted out to a quick 9-2 lead with reigning CW player of the week
Vick Toor and forward
Kyle Claggett doing the damage, but the T-Birds found their footing and responded with a 13-3 run of their own and led 19-16 after the first quarter.
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UFV tightened the defensive clamps in the second quarter, limiting UBC to just six points in the frame, to grab a slender 27-25 lead at the break.
The T-Birds' offence got unstuck in the third, with James Woods pouring in 11 points in the quarter and Grant Audu adding nine as the hosts grabbed a 51-44 edge heading to the fourth.
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The Cascades opened the fourth on a 7-2 run, with
Dario Lopez draining a trey and
Jiordano Khan driving for a pair of layups, to cut the deficit to 53-51, and they hung tough down the stretch. A pair of Toor free throws drew UFV to within 65-64 with less than two minutes left in regulation, but an Audu jumper and a Woods trey gave UBC some breathing room, and the Cascades missed four triples at the offensive end.
"We settled for early, contested threes," Enevoldson said, reflecting on his team's offence at crunch time. "Essentially, they imposed their will on us, and we weren't up for the challenge in that regard. But we grew tonight and got better."
Toor had a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds, and rookie forward Lopez continued to sparkle with 13 points and six boards.
Woods finished with a game-high 20 points for UBC, Sukhman Sandhu scored 18, and Audu had 15 points and eight boards.
UFV hung in on the boards (UBC had a 49-47 rebounding edge) and took great care of the ball (just nine turnovers to UBC's 15).
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