The short Cinderella run for the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades men’s basketball team came to an end on Thursday (Feb. 22).
The Cascades fell 96-69 to the Winnipeg Wesmen and couldn’t overcome the opposition’s dominance in the paint and the rebounding game.
The Wesmen scored 52 points in the paint and out rebounded the Cascades 54-27 in the win. After a first quarter that saw the Cascades trail by just three points, Winnipeg took over in the second quarter by outscoring UFV 23-13 and never looked back.
Winnipeg’s Donald Stewart had a beast of a game, scoring 25 points and grabbing 17 rebounds. The Wesmen also shot an impressive 49.3 per cent from the field. UFV’s top scorers were Dario Lopez and Ismael Hernandez, who both recorded 11 points. It was a rough day shooting for UFV star Dylan Kinley, as he shot just two for 18. The Cascades as a team shot 38.9 per cent.
“They’re really good at rebounding. In the first half they were killing us on the glass,” stated Kinley. “At halftime we wanted to own it. We did a little bit better in the third, but we slipped up late in the fourth.”
That loss came after an upset win over the Regina Cougars on Wednesday (Feb. 21).
The Cascades took down the higher-seeded Cougars 74-62 in the Canada West men’s basketball championships play-in game in Winnipeg.
UFV was led by Kinley, who collected 20 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and recorded four assists. Lopez contributed with 18 points and eight boards.
The Cascades ran away with the game in the fourth quarter, outscoring Regina 25-10. They also held the Cougars to just 34.5 per cent shooting. Turnovers were also a big factor in the game, as Regina coughed the ball up 22 times to just 15 for UFV.
UFV head coach Joe Enevoldson stated that his team has been in a lot of close games this season and that experience helped them pull out the win. He also praised the play of Kinley and Lopez.
“That’s been our one-two punch all year long,” he said. “We expect them to play at a really high level and we need them to.”
The game marked the end of the Cascades career for Kinley, who completed his fifth season. The Lord Tweedsmuir grad had career highs of 17.6 points per game and seven rebounds per game in his final season.