The first overall playoff seed dreams of the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades women’s basketball team were dashed on Thursday (Feb. 24) in Prince George.
Riding a seven-game win streak, the Cascades could have entered the playoffs ranked number one in Canada West, but a third quarter that saw them be outscored 18-9 sealed the team’s fate in a 68-63 loss to the UNBC Timberwolves.
Fouls were a big issue, as UFV was called for 20 in the second half.
Despite Thursday’s result, the West Division champion Cascades will be seeded No. 2 or 3 when the Canada West playoffs open, depending on what happens in other CW action as the regular season concludes this weekend. The first three rounds of the CW playoff tournament run March 4 to 6 in Calgary and Lethbridge, and UFV will have a bye to the quarter-finals.
WBB | Terrific ball movement from the Cascades to pick apart the T-Wolves' zone… and Julia Tuchscherer finishes with the wide-open layup!@UNBCATHLETICS leads 20-18 after 1Q.#GoCascades pic.twitter.com/gwBQs3ZYzz
— UFV Cascades (@UFVCascades) February 25, 2022
The Cascades were led by the Tuchscherer sisters, with Deanna scoring 21 points and collecting nine rebounds and Julia adding 15 points coming off the bench.
I think the overall lesson coming out of this game is, we all need to be quite a bit better,” Cascades head coach Al Tuchscherer stated. “We need to be ready to play for 40 minutes and fight through adversity and mistakes, and we didn’t do a very good job of that, myself included.”
🏀 WBB | @nikki_cabuco swishes the trey, and the Cascades take a 37-32 lead into halftime!#GoCascades pic.twitter.com/gY2mtg3yyT
— UFV Cascades (@UFVCascades) February 25, 2022
The loss concludes the Cascades regular season and they finished at an impressive 15-3.
Wednesday (Feb. 23) saw UFV capture the CW West division title with a 73-60 win over UNBC. The title win marks the first time since 2014 that the women’s basketball team has captured a divisional crown.
The Cascades had five players scoring in double digits on Wednesday, with Nikki Cabuco (15), Maddy Gobeil (13), Julia Tuchscherer (12), Deanna Tuchscherer (11) and Natalie Rathler (10) displaying a balanced attack.
UFV led 34-28 at halftime and then pushed the lead to 10 after three quarters to earn the win.
“It was one of those games where we got the job done eventually,” stated Cascades head coach Al Tuchscherer. “They (UNBC) play a little bit different than some of the other teams in the conference, and we didn’t adjust very quickly. We were able to generate a few turnovers and got some easy baskets in transition, and that seemed to spark our offence a little bit and give us a bit of a cushion to bring the game home.”
Deanna Tuchscherer added eight rebounds and seven assists, while Rathler also grabbed eight rebounds. Turnovers were a big story in the game, as the Timberwolves committed 28 which led to 35 Cascades points.
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