The Trinity Western Spartans flipped the script on the University of the Fraser Valley women's basketball team, prevailing 68-52 at the UFV Athletic Centre on Friday evening.
Last Thursday, the Cascades had blown out the SpartansÂ
70-47Â in the first game of the season between the West Division's two front-running squads.
Just over a week later, the shoe was on the other foot, as Trinity Western raced out to an early 14-2 lead and kept the Cascades at arm's length from there.Â
The Spartans' offence was clicking in this one, as five players scored in double figures, led by Nicole Fransson's 17.Â
The hosts got a game-high 18 points from rookie standout
Julia Tuchscherer – all in the second half – but were unable to cut into the deficit in a meaningful way in the fourth quarter.
The Cascades (8-2) and Spartans (10-1) complete their regular-season trilogy on Saturday at UFV (6 p.m., CanadaWest.tv presented by Co-op).Â
"I don't think our approach to this game was right at all," Cascades head coach
Al Tuchscherer summarized afterward. "You spend nine days reading about how awesome you are, and then you come into the game kind of full of yourself. And the other team, all they've been thinking about is how they're going to kick your butt. Great teams don't approach games like that. It's a lesson our players are going to have to learn, and they learned it the hard way tonight."
The Spartans' game-opening 14-2 run was highlighted by triples from Jolene Vlieg and Hailey Van Roekel, and capped by a Jayden Gill layup. Back-to-back treys from
Deanna Tuchscherer and
Maddy Gobeil helped the Cascades trim the deficit to 21-15 at the end of the frame, but TWU continued to cook in the second, reeling off a 9-0 run featuring four points from Fransson to go up 40-22. The visitors took a 42-24 advantage into halftime.
Julia Tuchscherer had been hampered by foul trouble in the first half, seeing just over five minutes of court time while picking up three personals. She got rolling in the third quarter, racking up 12 points in the frame, but the Spartans answered every UFV surge with one of their own, and the lead was 57-42 heading to the fourth.Â
The Cascades got as close as 13 (61-48) midway through the fourth after a pair of
Julia Tuchscherer free throws, but the Spartans responded with six straight points to end any hope of a UFV comeback.
Deanna Tuchscherer, with 10 points and five boards, joined her younger sister as the Cascades' only double-digit scorers on the night.
Natalie Rathler added nine points and five rebounds off the bench.
All five TWU starters – Fransson, Gill (14 points), Wiens (12), Vlieg (10) and Van Roekel (10) – scored in double digits, and they won the rebounding battle 44-32.Â
"They had quite a different game plan tonight, so kudos to them," Coach Tuchscherer said of the Spartans. "I thought there was a lot more movement in their offence. They went away from a lot of their ball-screen action, and I thought they put a lot of pressure on our high-post person (defensively) and took that away. Their match-ups were different tonight, so they pressured us a little bit more.
"Now it's up to us to adjust what we're doing."
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