Vancouver, BC – The University of the Fraser Valley Cascades knocked off the UBC Thunderbirds 68-59 on Friday evening at War Memorial Gym.

UFV trailed 18-13 after shooting just 4-14 in the first quarter, but nine second quarter points off the bench from Natalie Rathler helped the visitors heat up. The Cascades went 10 of 20 from the field in the frame to outscore the Thunderbirds 23-9 and take a 36-27 lead into the break.

UFV took a 51-42 lead into the fourth before extending their advantage to 17 points on a 12-4 run.  UBC responded with an 11-0 run of their own to cut the lead to six in the final minute, but that was as close as they came.

Top performers
Natalie Rathler sparked the Cascades with 12 points and 11 rebounds off the bench, while Maddy Gobeil scored a team-high 16 points. Julia Tuchscherer added 14 points, three blocks, and five rebounds for UFV.

Sara Toneguzzi led the Thunderbirds with 16 points and five rebounds, while Azalya Forstbauer had a game-high 13 rebounds to go with eight points.

Quotable
UFV head coach Al Tuchscherer

"UBC is a hardworking team that plays with a lot of energy in this building. I think we did a good job weathering the storm in the first quarter, and our defence settled in for the second. We are two of the better defensive teams in the conference so we came in knowing it would be tough to score buckets tonight."

"Nat [Rathler] is the x-factor here. She brings a lot of things to our team. She anchors our defence and has developed her offensive game. The fact we can bring her off the bench says a lot because Nat is a player that can have a pretty significant impact."

Where they sit
UFV sees their record improve to 12-5 with the win, while UBC slides to 10-7 on the year.

The two teams will play the second half of their back to back on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. (PT) at UBC's War Memorial Gym.