ABBOTSFORD, B.C. – The UBC Thunderbirds saw their six-game win streak come to a halt Saturday night with a 77-62 loss to the Fraser Valley Cascades at the Envision Athletic Centre.

The Cascades led by as many as 23 points in the first half, then fended off a UBC comeback effort in the third quarter to seal a decisive victory, earning the weekend split.

UFV (6-4) had a strong effort defensively, limiting the Thunderbirds (8-4) to 29.6 per cent shooting from the field, and rookie Jessica Parker paced the offence with a career-high 19 points.



The Cascades led wire-to-wire, opening the game on a 5-0 run highlighted by three points from Parker, and were up 29-13 at the end of the first quarter. They continued to cruise in the second, opening the frame with an Amanda Thompson jumper, a Jessica Zawada triple, and an Alexis Worrell up-and-under bucket to stake out a 36-13 advantage.

The T-Birds had missed their first 10 attempts from beyond the arc, but caught fire in the third quarter to get back into the game. They canned a trio of triples in just over a minute, with a pair from Jessica Hanson bookending one from Gabrielle Laguerta, to trim a 51-31 deficit to 51-40 in the blink of an eye.

The Cascades locked it down on defence at that point, holding UBC scoreless over the first five-plus minutes of the fourth quarter. Maddy Gobeil capped a 10-0 run with a three-pointer to make it 68-48 with four and a half minutes left in regulation and essentially drain any suspense from the proceedings.



"We had a flat start and got ourselves into foul trouble," UBC head coach Deb Huband noted afterward. "We got started on the wrong foot and they had a great start . . . bad start, foul trouble impacts the game from that point on. I thought they did a great job with tempo and attacking, taking advantage of us particularly in the first half."

Hanson and Keylyn Filewich posted 18 points apiece for UBC, but they were the lone T-Birds to score in double figures.

The Thunderbirds will look to start a new win streak next weekend when they host their first games of the New Year against the Trinity Western Spartans Friday and Saturday at War Memorial Gym.