Kamloops, BC – For the second consecutive game, Clay Kurtz dropped a career high in points, scoring 26 on Friday, as the Cascades took down the TRU Wolfpack 81-73.

With the victory the Cascades improve to 3-2 on the season, while the WolfPack drop to 2-3. 

How it happened:
A back-and-forth first quarter saw the two teams knotted up at 18-18 through the opening ten minutes. TRU shot 50 per cent from the floor as a team and Evan Smith had six early points for the 'Pack. Takeshi Croke responded with eight for the Cascades.

UFV began to eke out a lead in the second quarter. The Cascades caught fire from the floor while TRU's shooters went cold as the visitors won the frame 26-18. UFV went on an 18-8 run throughout the opening portion of the quarter to help them hold an eight-point lead at the half.

Quick buckets saw TRU storm back to make the lead just 49-46. That was as close as they would come to evening the score however as eight points from Kurtz over the final five minutes in the frame gave UFV the 59-50 edge heading into the fourth quarter.

Asher Mayan and Denys Bachurin both had six points in the final frame and the 'Pack cut the Cascades' lead to just four on multiple occasions but some timely defending and clutch shooting down the stretch allowed the visitors to pull out the victory with Kurtz and Croke each chipping in six points in the final ten minutes. 

Notable:
Kurtz scored a career-high 26 points and added five rebounds, while Croke added 17 points and six assists. Matthias Klim picked up his 72^nd career block in the contest to tie Sukhman Sandhu for the most in Cascades program history.

Dami Fairnloye had a team-high 16 points, and added seven rebounds, while Cyrus Harrison had 13 points in the game.  

Quotable:
Cascades head coach Joe Enevoldson

"We showed a lot of discipline, and I think we are a pretty good basketball team. I think the fourth quarter showed that. When they made a run we bent but didn't break and that's kind of been our theme a bit this year."

"Some guys are growing, and now we have a mature basketball team. Obviously [Clay] Kurtz has taken that next step, and that's the reason we recruited him from the start. We knew he could be that secondary or primary option. He's showing that, and we're just going to keep building on that."

"Their work during the summer is starting to pay off. I think what we are seeing is a by-product of that work they put in. Tesh [Croke] is starting to hit threes. Uyi [Ologhola] is starting to be a bit more aggressive on offence, which in the past he hasn't done. We are seeing results because of the work that we put in, and that's contagious."

Up next:
The two teams meet up once again on Saturday afternoon in Kamloops, with tip off scheduled for 6pm live on Canada West TV. 

You can keep up with all the action at gocascades.ca, or by following the UFV Cascades on social media at @ufvcascades