Abbotsford, BC – Clay Kurtz dropped a career high 23 points to lead all scorers as the UFV Cascades finished off the weekend sweep, 66-58, over the UBC Okanagan Heat on Saturday at the UFV Athletic Centre. 

With the victory the Cascades improve to 2-2 on the season, while the Heat drop to 1-3. 

How it happened:
Scoring was hard to come by all night, and the same was true in the first. UFV's Matthias Klim, and UBCO's Jalen Shirley traded shots in the paint to have the game tied at 10 with 3:35 left in the frame. The teams traded dunks from Dario Lopez and David Usuomon to finish the quarter with the Cascades up 16-14.

Kurtz took over offensively for the Cascades in the second, scoring 11 of the team's 17 points in the quarter, and the Cascades held a 33-32 lead at the break. 

Kurtz made it an eight-point lead for the Cascades midway through the third quarter before UBCO's Isaak Moore hit a pair of triples to cut into the lead with under two minutes left in the frame. A Takeshi Croke three was followed by an Ismael Hernandez jumper to make the UFV lead eight once again going into the fourth.

The teams went back-and-forth in the final quarter, but late free throws from Kurtz and Dario Lopez sealed the win for UFV 66-58.

Notable:
Kurtz scored a career-high 23 points and added eight rebounds, while Lopez and Hernandez each added 11 points in the win. Matthias Klim notched three blocks at the rim for the Cascades in the effort.

Jalen Shirley and Imoudu Ibrahim led the Heat with 11 points apiece, while Jas Dhudwal had 10 points and 10 rebounds in the contest. 

Quotable:
Cascades guard Clay Kurtz

"We just did the job. It was a gritty win compared to the other night, but I think we needed that. It felt good tonight to get a gritty win."

"Our defence has definitely gotten better. Keeping any team to 58 is tough, so I think being able to do that even when we aren't scoring a lot ourselves, it shows how much our defence has improved over the last year."

Cascades head coach Joe Enevoldson.
"We had a multitude of guys step up today, and everybody knows Dario [Lopez] is a go to guy for us, but Clay [Kurtz] is establishing himself as a great secondary option if not a primary option on a night like tonight. He's had a fantastic couple of weeks, and I'm really looking forward to his progress."

"We were really good tonight defensively. There were a couple of slip ups, but for the most part we held a university basketball team to under 60. Guys like Uyi [Ologhola], Clay [Kurtz], Tesh [Croke], Matthias [Klim] blocked shots, we just had a multitude of efforts defensively which is allowing us opportunities to be successful in these games.

Up next:
The Cascades are on the road next week against the Thompson Rivers University Wolfpack Friday, November 15 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, November 16 at 6:00 p.m. The games can be watched live on Canada West TV.

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