Kelowna B.C. – The Cascades bounced back to beat the Heat 63-40 Saturday afternoon in Kelowna for their final game of 2024.
The Cascades move to 6-3 while the Heat are now 3-6.
How It Happened:
In the first quarter, the Heat got off to a good start quickly leading by four points in the first two minutes of the game. The Cascades then stepped in and made their way back leveling the game midway 10-10 as Deanna Tuchscherer had a jump shot and a free throw. The play continued and the Cascades took the lead 12-10 with a layup from Kyanna Knodel. UFV's lead strengthened by five points as both Esther Allison and Maddy Gobeil found the net to finish off the first quarter 18-13.
The Cascades started their run of scoring early going up by 10 points from multiple shooters. As the quarter continued, the Cascades dominated the play both defensively as they quickly racked up rebounds. Offensively UFV were trigger friendly finding point after point. By half, the Cascades were up by 18 leading 34-16 and had held the Heat to just three points in the third quarter.
In third quarter, the Cascades couldn't be stopped as they continued to extend their lead with multiple points from Allison and Gobeil throughout. Late in the third, Knodel came up again and the Cascades moved up by 27 points. The play continued the same and the Cascades closed out the third quarter with a strong 52-24 lead.
In the fourth quarter, the Cascades kept the energy going. Gobeil had an early four points despite the Heat trying to gain some momentum. Midway, Madison Storme entered the game having some impactful minutes grabbing a couple more points for UFV. The Cascades relied on the depth of their bench in the final push to the end. With under a minute to go, Storme had the last word with a jump shot for the Cascades to take the game 63-40.
Notable:
Maddy Gobeil led the game with 15 points and six rebounds. Esther Allison was close behind with 14 points and 6 rebounds while Julia Tuchscherer followed with 10 points and 5 rebounds.
Quotable:
Head Coach Al Tuchscherer
"We had a little bit of a rough travel up to Kelowna and coming off of last night with those things considered you get a little worried about how your team is going to respond and I was really happy with the bounce back today and how dialed in we were."
"We went into today's game knowing we were going to get into our depth and playing some of our younger ones I thought they performed really well, even when the score was a little bit tighter I thought they really held their own out there and contributed to the win today which was a real positive."
What's Next:
The Cascades return in the New Year playing UNBC Timberwolves January 10 at 6 p.m. and TRU Wolfpack January 11 at 3 p.m. both at the UFV Athletic Centre.
