The University of the Fraser Valley Cascades men’s basketball team took care of business in Prince George over the weekend.
The team went north for a pair of games against the UNBC Timberwolves, and posted an 88-76 win on Friday (Jan. 28) and an 87-83 win on Saturday (Jan. 29).
UFV started off red hot on Friday, opening up a 24-16 lead after one and led 49-37 at halftime. The Cascades led by as many as 24 points in the third, but UNBC had a fourth quarter push to draw slightly closer.
🏔🏀 MBB | Cascades' transition game is ⚡️ quick tonight! @ToorVick with the steal, feeds Zubair Seyed for the layup, and the @goUFV lead is 21!#GoCascades pic.twitter.com/VcKX9DYSpY
— UFV Cascades (@UFVCascades) January 29, 2022
UFV’s Zubair Seyed had a team-high 23 points and added seven rebounds and three assists. Jordyn Sekhon contributed with 19 points, seven rebounds and three steals, while Kyle Claggett collected a team-high nine rebounds to go with 12 points.
The Cascades shot an impressive 47.9 per cent from the field in the win.
“Any win on the road is a great team effort,” UFV head coach Joe Enevoldson said. “We have multiple guys who can finish in multiple different ways, and we are at times a very willing passing basketball team as we’re getting up and down the floor. We did a god job defensively and on the boards for the most part, and that ignited our run-outs.”
A strong third quarter and balanced scoring paced the Cascades to another victory over UNBC on Sunday.
UFV outscored UNBC 27-20 in third quarter to pull away and six Cascades players hit double figures in points in the win.
Dario Lopez (16), Claggett (15), Dylan Kinley (14), Vick Toor (10), Sekhon (10) and Seyed (10) all had solid games offensively. The efficiency of the Cascades offence was also on display, as the team shot a sizzling 52.4 per cent from the field.
🏔🏀 MBB | @ToorVick passes out of the double team, and @claggett_kyle with a huge bucket as the Cascades continue to lead late!#GoCascades pic.twitter.com/Uw4rHt1FzL
— UFV Cascades (@UFVCascades) January 30, 2022
“We want to have great balance – we had five guys in double digits last night, and six tonight,” Enevoldson said. “When you have a multitude of scorers on the floor, defences can’t load up against one or two guys. We usually have five on the floor who can give you 15 points, depending on the night. You become extremely hard to guard that way.”
The pair of wins improves the Cascades to 7-4 on the season and they sit firmly in third place in Canada West’s West Division.
The team continues on the road this week with a game in Kamloops against the TRU Wolfpack on Thursday (Feb. 3) and games on Saturday and Sunday in Kelowna against the UBC-O Heat. The Cascades next home game is scheduled for Feb. 18 when the Victoria Vikes come to Abbotsford.
The women’s team was also scheduled to compete against UNBC this weekend, but the games were postponed because both teams did not have the minimum number of players available to safely compete due to COVID-19 related protocols.
The women (9-2) also head to Kamloops on Thursday and then take on UBC in Vancouver on Feb. 11. They return home on Feb. 18 take on Victoria.