Abbotsford, BC – Dario Lopez scored a team-high 17 points, and Bennett O'Connor chipped in all over the stat sheet as the UFV Cascades picked up a 72-66 win over the TRU WolfPack on Friday night at the UFV Athletic Centre. 

UFV has now won six of their last seven games to improve to 6-4, while TRU has now dropped three straight at 7-3.

How it Happened:
UFV got off to a hot start, taking leads of 6-0 and 13-4, before a pair of Lopez free throws and a Jaylen Lee layup gave the hosts a 21-10 lead after one quarter. 

TRU chipped away throughout the second before Chris Piotrowski hit a three and Dami Farinloye scored a late layup to make it a one score game. Dilveer Randhawa hit a jumper just before the half for UFV, but their lead dropped to just five at the break. 

A pair of Ismael Hernandez free throws would cap off an early run in the third to put UFV up 45-31, but the WolfPack would battle back again, and the teams would trade short runs back and forth. Hernandez would stop any TRU momentum in the fourth however, as he nailed a triple to make it a 12-point game with 3:27 to go and put it out of reach as UFV eased out the 72-66 final.   

Notable:
Dario Lopez had a team-high 17 points to go with seven rebounds in the game, while Bennett O'Connor chipped in 13 points and added five rebounds, five assists, three steals, and a block. Marcus Flores and Jaylen Lee had 11 points and seven points respectively while having strong efforts at both ends of the floor.

Jayden Green had a game-high 20 points for TRU off the bench, while Jayden Stephens notched 16.

Quotable:
UFV head coach Joe Enevoldson

"That's a gutsy physical win against a gutsy physical team, but ultimately it's a team game, and a team effort. It was a great team win, and we have to do it again tomorrow. At the end of the day I'm proud of everyone's effort, and I thought we were together as a team."

Up Next:
The Cascades and WolfPack meet up once again on Saturday, with tip off set for 6pm at the UFV Athletic Centre to close out the first semester of play at UFV..

To keep up with all the action follow the Cascades on social media at @ufvcascades and visit the UFV Athletics website at gocascades.ca.