This past weekend the UFV men’s basketball team travelled to Calgary to face off against the Mount Royal University (MRU) Cougars for two games. The Cascades headed into the weekend with a five-game winning streak, and an overall record of 8-6, while MRU held a record 3-11.
The first of the two games was held on Friday, Jan. 24. Although the Cascades were coming off a strong performance the last few weeks, they started the weekend slower than anticipated. Eight seconds into the game, the Cougars’ Adam Pahl scored a three-point shot. Despite still having almost 10 minutes left in the quarter, the Cascades only fell further behind in the score.
Heading into the second quarter the Cougars led, 28-22. MRU continued to hold the lead well into the second quarter, but the Cascades slowly chipped away at the score differential. With only 1:27 left on the clock, Cascades’ Sukhjot Bains drained a three-point shot, which gave the Cascades their first lead of the game. Although shortly after the Cascades’ basket MRU’s Adam Pahl would tie up the game with a basket of his own, the Cascades’ Daniel Adediran would go on to score a layup from within the key, which would result in the Cascades heading into the second half with a lead of 45-43.
The third quarter of Friday’s game saw the two teams trading turns at holding the lead. With the Cascades only scoring 18 points in the third, while the hosting team scored 20, the two teams entered the fourth, and final, quarter with a tied score of 63-63. Both teams were driven to find the win; however, it was the UFV Cascades that came out of the game with the victory. Scoring just four more points than the Cougars, Friday’s game ended with a score of 86-82 for the Cascades.
The Cascades continued their momentum into their Saturday game against MRU. In the first quarter of the second game, they were able to outscore the Cougars, 24-13. The Cascades ended the first quarter strong, but the second quarter was a completely different story. After substituting all five of their players heading into the second, MRU began to answer for their slow start. By the end of the first half, the Cougars bounced back from their large score deficit, and had even taken the lead from the Cascades. The half ended with the Cascades down to the Cougars, 41-38.
Although the Cascades started the second half off slow, the visiting team took control of the game shortly after, outscoring MRU by 12 in the latter half. The Cascades’ late game effort resulted in them winning their seventh consecutive game. The final score of the game was 95-86.
With 16 games now played in the season, the UFV men’s basketball team sits in seventh place in the Canada West standings, with a record of 10-6. Next weekend the Cascades will look to continue their winning streak against Canada West’s sixth-place team, the Thompson Rivers University Wolfpack. The two games against the Wolfpack will be held in Kamloops on Friday, Jan. 31 and Saturday, Feb. 1, at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., respectively.
Image: UFV Athletics
Photo: Matt Cooley
