The Thompson Rivers WolfPack finished off a weekend sweep of the University of the Fraser Valley women’s basketball team on Saturday evening, winning 80-59 in Kamloops.
The Cascades and WolfPack battled back and forth for most of the first quarter, but things started going sideways for UFV towards the end of the frame. TRU bridged the first and second quarters with an 11-0 run, headlined by a pair of three-pointers from Emma Piggin, thus turning what had been a 12-11 Cascades lead into a 22-12 WolfPack advantage.
The hosts would never trail again – they led 42-25 at the break, and pushed the margin to 20 points late in the third quarter.
Thompson Rivers (6-2) moved into second place in the Explorer Division by virtue of the win, while the fourth-place Cascades saw their record levelled at 4-4.
“Just no push-back from us tonight at all,” analyzed UFV head coach Al Tuchscherer, whose team had dropped a 67-62 decision to the WolfPack on Friday.
“TRU played well, there’s no doubt about it. But when you play good teams, they’re going to play well, and the idea is that you play well. . . . You can’t be surprised by that, you can’t be deflated by that. And we were. We’ve got to figure that out.”
Rookie forward Taylor Claggett was a bright spot for the Cascades – she poured in a career-high 20 points and added nine rebounds and four assists. Conference scoring leader Kayli Sartori posted a similarly well-rounded stat line with 14 points, seven boards and three assists, but she and Claggett were the only Cascades to hit at least half their shots from the field – UFV shot 35.6 per cent as a team, including 4-of-25 from three-point range.
Thompson Rivers shot 42 per cent from the field, highlighted by 12 three-pointers, and turned the ball over just 14 times compared to 22 for the Cascades.
“Taylor battled hard tonight, and that was positive,” Tuchscherer said. “We intentionally looked for her more tonight – we liked that match-up, and she got the job done. We need more effort like that.”
— The Cascades have nearly a month off before returning to action. The team will travel to Santa Barbara, CA in late December.
On the 29th they’ll tip off against The Master’s College Mustangs, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) school.
On the 30th they face another NAIA program, the Westmont College Warriors.
The Cascades resume CIS action Jan. 8-9 hosting the Mount Royal Cougars.
See ufvcascades.ca for more.