Abbotsford B.C. – The Cascades started off slow, but rallied behind five three pointers from Nikki Cabuco to come back and beat the Victoria Vikes 68-62 on Saturday afternoon in Abbotsford. 

The win sees the Cascades move to 6-2 on the season, while the Vikes drop to 4-4.

How It happened:
The Vikes came out strong to score the first seven points of the ball game. The Cascades pulled it back closer in the middle of the frame, but an 11 point run by the Vikes was punctuated by a Tana Pankratz triple to make it 30-13 for the visitors.

UFV righted the ship a bit in the second quarter, with Esther Allison scoring eight points, while the Cascades held all but two Vikes players scoreless in the frame with Abigail Becker and Makena Anderson each scoring five. Despite the strong play, the Cascades headed into half time down 40-31.

A pair of Cabuco triples in the third helped pull UFV back within two, but three quick buckets from Meike Boerstra at the end of the period saw Victoria head into the fourth with a seven-point advantage.

Cabuco bookended a Miah Schuurman jumper with a pair of three pointers to start the fourth quarter and give the Cascades their first lead of the game with 7:49 remaining on the clock. Another Schuurman jumper and an Allison triple put UFV up four with time beginning to wind down, and three Julia Tuchscherer free throws were enough to seal the win late. 

Notable:
Cabuco went 5 of 10 from beyond the arc to put up 17 points on the night and lead the Cascades, while Esther Allison added 14.

Abigail Becker led the Vikes with 19 points, and Tana Pankratz added 15 in the loss. 

Quotable:
Cascades guard Nikki Cabuco 

"I knew coming into the season that I wanted to be a dynamic player and leave everything on the court with it being my last year. I have all the confidence in the world from my coaches and my teammates to shoot my shot. I don't see five as a big number because my teammates trust me to knock down that shot every time I get that ball, and it's just about doing my role as well as I can, and letting it fly."

"We all feed off of each other. When little things happen, like charges, steals, big shots can we find a way to feed on that constantly. Like when Nikki is going can we feed off that energy. When Maddy [Gobeil] gets that charge can we go help her up and use that to fuel our drive. I think we are a really good team when those things happen and the bounce back part happens because we know we have it and we have each other. It's a team effort and not one person."

What's Next:
The Cascades close out their first semester of games next week with a Friday matchup in Langley against Trinity Western, before heading to Kelowna to face off with the UBCO Heat on Saturday. 

UFV students get free admission to all UFV Cascades home games with their student card, and you can keep up with all the action at gocascades.ca, or by following the UFV Cascades on social media at @ufvcascades