WBB | Cascades thrill home fans with quarter-final win over Cougars

Written by Dan Kinvig for UFV Athletics

ABBOTSFORD — The University of the Fraser Valley Cascades rode a wave of home-court support with the poise of a big-wave surfer, defeating the Regina Cougars 62-53 in the Canada West quarter-finals on Thursday evening.

Playing before a packed house at the UFV Athletic Centre, with Mennonite Educational Institute’s renowned Screaming Eagles marching band providing the soundtrack, the tournament hosts got a stat-stuffing performance from Maddy Gobeil (22 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, two steals) en route to victory.

The No. 4-seeded Cascades move on to Saturday’s semifinals, where they’ll face the winner of Thursday’s late quarter-final between the Saskatchewan Huskies and UBC Okanagan Heat (3 p.m., CanadaWest.tv). 

“It was exciting to play in that (atmosphere), and have the community behind us,” UFV head coach Al Tuchscherer said afterward. “Lots of high school and middle school kids out, and lots of coaches. It was fun. Hopefully we caught their imaginations a little bit. The girls, I thought, responded. They liked playing in front of that – it was pretty cool.

“I think you saw the things (tonight) that we’ve been talking about all year – playing together, playing for each other, and playing hard. Throughout the year, whenever there was a little crack (in that mentality), we fixed that crack, and tonight I thought it really paid off. Any time they made a little bit of a run, we were right there.”

Gobeil, a quintessential big-game player dating back to her days as a two-time B.C. high school champ at South Kamloops Secondary, set the tone for the hosts early. The fourth-year point guard rang up nine points in the first quarter, including a couple of highlight-reel finishes at the rim, as UFV led 14-9.

The Cougars battled back to draw even at 23-23, but the Cascades responded with an 11-0 run. Forwards Natalie Rathler and Marijke Duralia made key contributions off the bench, and Gobeil capped the surge with a pair of transition layups.

Regina regained a bit of momentum as Dayna Pearce drained a corner triple to beat the halftime buzzer, but it was UFV taking a 34-26 lead into the locker room.

UFV opened the third quarter on an 8-0 run to stretch the margin to 16, but the Cougars wouldn’t go away. They tightened things up defensively, doing a better job containing Gobeil and managing to limit UFV’s high-low passing between their forwards for stretches. The defensive diligence helped the visitors sneak back to within six points midway through the fourth, following another Pearce trey.

The Cascades, though, didn’t allow the Cougars to claw any closer than that. Julia Tuchscherer came through in the clutch, scoring seven of her nine points in the fourth quarter to help put Regina away.

Julia added nine rebounds and three blocks on the night, and her sister Deanna delivered 13 points and six boards.

“We play different styles, and they imposed their style on us,” Regina head coach Dave Taylor analyzed. “They limited our transition, we didn’t get three-point looks, and they beat us up inside. And in the first half especially, Maddy Gobeil was the best player on the floor. Going in, that’s exactly the type of game we didn’t want, because we’re going to lose that type of game. 

“The problem was, every time we figured it out defensively, we couldn’t score offensively. And every time we figured it out offensively, we couldn’t get a stop. We could never put the two things together.”

Jade Belmore, the Canada West player of the year and scoring champion, was limited to six points through three quarters and finished with 14 on 4-of-11 shooting from the field. Taylor noted that the Cascades’ combination of face-guarding aggression and switchable pieces on the perimeter made them a particularly tough match-up.

“They’re unique, because a lot of teams have tried to face-guard her (Belmore) and take her out,” he said. “But they can also switch, and they’ve got size at the rim, too. When we were successful, we got her out in transition.”

Kianna Wiens scored 10 points for the Cougars, while Pearce and Kyu Fust contributed six points apiece.