Vancouver, BC – Esther Allison scored a career-high 27 points, and added 10 rebounds for the UFV Cascades, but the team fell 88-69 to the UBC Thunderbirds on Saturday afternoon in Vancouver.

The result sees the Cascades go to 9-5 on the season, while UBC moves to 12-1 on the year.

How it happened:
UBC began the game on a 10-2 run, but their momentum was halted slightly when, following a missed T-Birds' shot, Cascades guard Maddy Gobeil snagged the rebound, turned, and fired a pinpoint pass, nearly the length of the court, to teammate Esther Allison who drove and laid in the layup through contact, before converting the and-one opportunity. 
 
Later, Mona Berlitz picked up her own rebound before putting home a bucket through contact, earning and converting the and-one opportunity. Berlitz followed that up with consecutive assists on the next two possessions, leading the charge for her team as they ended the first quarter up 24-9.  
 
The second quarter began with a bang as the Cascades' Allison was found wide-open in the corner and proceeded to hit a nothing-but-net three. Yet, just as the visitor bench erupted, the T-Birds set up on the other end, leading to Kiera Daly responding with a three of her own. Daly followed that up with a tough drive to the basket on the following possession, weaving through traffic as she managed to get off a smooth finger roll to reestablish the 18-point lead. Both teams exchanged blows through the final minutes of the half, highlighted by multiple offensive rebounds from UFV to create extra possessions, but the 'Birds held strong, heading into halftime, up 44-24.
 
Coming out of the break, it was all Fraser Valley. UFV's Allison began the frame the same way she began the second, with a corner three. Just a couple of minutes later, teammate Nikki Cabuco followed suit with a three of her own to beat the shot-clock buzzer. The Cascades kept pushing, and with Allison still consistently finding the net, from both inside and outside the arc, UFV was closing the gap. Allison scored her twentieth point on a putback layup after she chased down the offensive rebound, bringing the score to 52-38 in favour of UBC, and with plenty of time left. A timeout seemed to right the ship for UBC as both teams fought hard and ended the frame with UBC leading 58-43.
 
The Thunderbirds found their stride once more in the fourth, displaying smooth passing for multiple scores, highlighted by Daly pulling out the euro step in transition for the easy lay-in to earn a 21-point lead. The 'Birds continued to find ways to score while converting timely defensive stops throughout the frame, eventually walking away with the 88-69 victory.

Notable:
Esther Allison posted 27 points, a career-high, and added 10 rebounds in the game. 

Quotable:
UFV head coach Al Tuchscherer

"I thought we competed much better today than we did yesterday, and thought we were much more focused. We found solutions to some of the things they were trying, and I just thought the girls battled really hard today."

"Esther is really starting to come into her own. Just to see her make big plays, and keep possessions alive with her ability to rebound the ball – it's really nice to see her hard work paying off."

"I thought Julia [Tuchscherer] was really good all weekend – I think she is one of the more underrated players in Canada West. She's never really received any recognition, but really she makes things happen for us and anchors our defence."

Up next:
The Cascades now return home next weekend for a pair of matchups with the MacEwan Griffins at the UFV Athletic Centre. Tip-off is set for 6pm on Friday, and 3pm on Saturday. All Cascades regular season games can also be seen 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

- With files from UBC Athletics / Ian French -