After receiving a bye last weekend, the UFV women’s basketball team held their first two home games of the season against the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) Heat. Before the weekend started the Cascades and the Heat sat at records of 0-2 and 1-3, respectively.
Friday night’s game against the Heat started out evenly matched, but with a dominating third quarter, the Cascades were able to pick up their first win of the season.
The first quarter of the game saw the Cascades find a four-point lead over the Heat by the time it had ended. With a score of 17-13 heading into the second, the Cascades began to slowly add to their lead, ending the first half with a score of 33-21.
Although the Heat were able to keep the game within their grasp in the first half, the third quarter saw the Cascades crush any chance of the Heat making a comeback. The Cascades were nearly able to double their score, with 26 points in the quarter, while keeping the Heat to only nine more points. The third quarter ended with a score total of 59-31.
The Heat were unwilling to give up and won the last quarter, but only by one point. The final score for the game was 78-49 in favour of UFV.
Cascade players lead Friday night’s game in both successful three-point attempts and overall points. Nikki Cabuco was able to hit three out of five of her three-point attempts, while Taylor Claggett led the game with 19 points overall.
With a win now on the record, the Cascades entered Saturday with energy. The two teams were once again evenly matched. Although the Cascades grabbed the lead early on, the Heat crawled back and brought their score within two points, 11-9, with only 2:47 left in the first. From this point though, the Cascades dominated the game, scoring another 11 points in the quarter without letting the Heat get another basket.
The second and third were closer in score, but the Cascades still outscored the Heat 21-15 and 21-16, respectively. This pushed the Cascades to a 64-37 lead entering the last quarter of Saturday’s game.
When the fourth quarter started, the Heat tried to overcome their 27-point deficit; however, they were only able to outscore UFV by three. The Cascades won the game with a score of 77-53.
In their second win of the season, Claggett helped lead the team to victory with 24 of the Cascades’ points. Maddy Gobeil led the Cascades in success outside the three-point line, hitting two out of three of her three-point attempts.
The next two games for the Cascades will be against the Lethbridge Pronghorns on Friday, Nov. 22 at 6 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 23 at 5 p.m. UFV will host both games at the Envision Financial Athletic Centre.
Image: UFV Athletics
Photo: Jessica Zawada
