The University of the Fraser Valley men's basketball team put a scare into the UBC Thunderbirds on their home court, but the hosts were able to erase a double-digit deficit and rally for an 80-72 win on Saturday evening in Vancouver.
In a game of wild momentum swings, the Cascades found themselves trailing by nine at halftime, but dominated the third quarter to grab a 62-52 lead heading to the final frame.
The T-Birds, though, were able to knock the Cascades off-kilter by switching to a zone defence, sparking a frantic comeback that netted UBC (4-0) its fourth straight victory to open the season while dropping UFV to 2-2.
The Cascades are back in action next week at home, welcoming the Thompson Rivers WolfPack to the UFV Athletic Centre for a Friday-Saturday set.
"I think when they went to the 2-3 zone, it took us out of offensive flow for sure," Cascades head coach
Joe Enevoldson said afterward. "But it also took us out of defensive flow – we became passive at both ends of the floor. I think their guys got to their strong hand off ball screens way too easily, and we'd done a good job of preventing that over the first three quarters.
"It's a scenario where we did get better, and while the result wasn't there tonight, that's what we're pushing for towards February/March."
The Cascades opened a 14-9 lead on Saturday, but the T-Birds were able to draw even at 16-16 at the end of the first quarter, and a nine-point outburst from James Woods in the second powered the hosts to a 43-34 halftime advantage.
The third quarter, though, was all UFV – they outscored UBC 28-9 in the frame, paced by centre
Kyle Claggett who got six of his eight points in the quarter at the free throw line. The T-Birds, meanwhile, shot 4-for-18 in the frame.
UBC turned the tables in the fourth, thanks largely to their zone defence. UFV's lead was 66-54 after a
Jordyn Sekhon jumper, but the T-Birds authored a 24-3 surge led by Grant Audu, who scored 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting down the stretch.
"Process vs. outcome," Enevoldson said afterward. "If we're focusing on the right now, we're not going feel very good about ourselves, but we've got to focus on the future.
"We said it in the team room after – we don't want to peak on Nov. 6. We want to put together a full 40 minutes on Feb. 28, 29."
And indeed, there were a lot of positives for the Cascades to take away. Rookie wing
Suraj Gahir had the best game of his young career, counting a trio of triples among his team-best 17 points. Claggett scored 16 and added five assists, Sekhon had 11 points, and
Vick Toor posted 10 points and seven assists. Toor currently ranks second in Canada West in assists, averaging 6.5 per game.
Woods scored 22 to lead four double-digit scorers for UBC, alongside Audu (17), Sukhman Sandhu (16 points, 11 rebounds) and Triston Matthews (12).
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