The University of Fraser Valley Cascades did enough to avoid wasting a record-setting performance by Taylor Claggett.
She put up a 30-point, 15-rebound effort on Friday night at the Northern Sports Centre giving the visitors a hard-fought 79-67 win over the UNBC Timberwolves in Canada West women’s basketball action.
Claggett set a new conference career mark for free throws with 463, smashing the previous record of 453 set by Saskatchewan Huskies great Sarah Crooks.
After the game, the Mission BC product was rather low-key about the accomplishment.
“Honestly, I wasn’t even thinking of it. It’s a cherry on top of the win, but it wasn’t something I set out to do,”
“It’s a by product of the way I play, so I keep attacking the hoop. It’s a nice reward to have.”
POSTGAME: 30 points, 15 rebounds, and a new @CanadaWest career record for Free Throws for @taylorclaggett as her @UFVCascades edge @UNBCWomensBball 79-67 tonight. Hear from the new FT queen! pic.twitter.com/Xt7kfdTB02
— UNBC Athletics (@UNBCATHLETICS) January 11, 2020
Fraser Valley blitzed UNBC out of the gate leading 23-10 after the first quarter.
The Timberwolves then played their best basketball after the ejection of head coach Sergey Shchepotkin after a disputed foul call in the second quarter.
Led by Madison Landry and Maria Mongomo, who both had a team-high 24 points as UNBC outscored the Cascades 32-19 to wrap up the first half.
After a buzzer-beating shot by Claggett to end a frantic third quarter, UFV pulled away for good in the final ten minutes out scoring the T-Wolves 17-9 to improve to 7-4 on the season.
“We stuck with them for most of the game, which was really encouraging considering all of our injuries that we had last week against Calgary. However, they put up a lot more shots than we did and you can’t win a game when a team out shoots you,” said Emma vanBruinessen, Timberwolves Forward.
UNBC only dressed nine players due to injuries to key pieces like Alina Shakirova, and Cevanna Carlson.
vanBruinessen admits fatigue may have played a factor.
“Definitely having nine players everyone gets tired especially with people who normally wouldn’t play so the rest of the bench had to step up.”
The Timberwolves drop to 3-8 on the season, good enough for 13th in the conference trailing the Mount Royal Cougars (4-7) by a single game for the final playoff spot.
Fraser Valley shot 37% on field goals while the Timberwolves were just 29%.
In men’s action, the Cascades used a 13-0 third quarter run to escape with a 87-72 triumph over UNBC.
Fraser Valley saw six players end up with double-digit performances including Vic Toor who had 14 points and nine rebounds.
“We’ve got a deep roster and everyone can play, that’s one of our strong suits so whoever is hot stays in and we just roll off that,” said Toor.
POSTGAME: Hear from veteran @UFVCascades guard @ToorVick after his Cascades topped @UNBCBasketball 87-72. Toor finished with 14 points & 9 assists in the @canadawest victory. pic.twitter.com/Jp0TnyfEYI
— UNBC Athletics (@UNBCATHLETICS) January 11, 2020
Vova Pluzhnikov continued his stellar play in a losing effort for the Timberwolves with 27 points but was less than pleased with the team’s defensive prowess.
“There’s no secret, we came out soft defensively, we let them get on that run and capitalized on our weaknesses and on the offensive end we just couldn’t score for a little bit.”
“Once again, the third quarter was the difference.”
UFV improves to 5-6 while UNBC is 4-7.
Both varsity teams play again tonight (Saturday) at 5:00 and 7:00 pm from the Northern Sport Centre.
POSTGAME: An impressive 27 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assist performance for @VovaPluzhnikov in a losing effort for @UNBCBasketball, as they fall 87-72 to the @UFVCascades tonight. Rematch tomorrow at 7 PM on @CanadaWest TV! pic.twitter.com/3Kri9RMLqF
— UNBC Athletics (@UNBCATHLETICS) January 11, 2020
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