VANCOUVER – The No. 3 UBC Thunderbirds men's basketball team was upset 77-72 by the No. 8 Fraser Valley Cascades in Abbotsford on Friday night.
UBC trailed by a point (53-52) going into the fourth quarter but a
Nathan Yu (5th, Prince George, BC) three-pointer a half minute into the period gave the Thunderbirds the lead 55-53.
Unfortunately, it was the last time in the game UBC would be ahead on the scoreboard as Joel Friesen replied with a trey of his own to put Fraser Valley back ahead.
The Cascades would build their lead to 70-61 late in the quarter to put the game away.
“The story for tonight was rebounding,” said UBC head coach
Kevin Hanson. “We focus on it every day in practice but tonight we got beat up bad on the boards. We gave up 18 offensive rebounds. Fraser Valley took advantage of those opportunities.”
UBC was outrebounded 48-30 by the Cascades, who got 17 boards alone from Jasper Moedt to go along with ten points.
The Thunderbirds started the game off terrifically, outscoring UFV 27-16 in the first quarter but the Cascades fought back with an 18-9 second period to make it a two-point game at the half.
Yu scored 24 points to lead UBC while
Doug Plumb (5th, Pitt Meadows, BC) chipped in with 15.
Graham Bath added 11 points off the bench.
Friesen scored 18 to lead UFV, which had five players in double digits on Friday night.
“Defensively we made a lot of mistakes and didn't compete hard enough,” said Hanson. “Fraser Valley is a talented team and they competed real hard.”
After making half of their 28 field goals in the first half, the Thunderbirds shot just 31 percent from the field in the second half.
The loss drops UBC to 12-3, tied for first place in the Canada West's Pacific Division with Victoria.
Fraser Valley (11-5) now has four straight wins and is a game and a half behind the T-Birds and Vikes.
Tonight's result is the first-ever win by UFV over UBC in Canada West play. Prior to tonight, the Thunderbirds had been 15-0 in regular season and playoff games against the Cascades dating back to UFV's entry into the Canada West conference 2006.
UBC and Fraser Valley will play again on Saturday night in Abbotsford at 7 p.m.
-30-
