Andrew Snucins

Fraser Valley Cascades (M) UFV 0

Thompson Rivers WolfPack (M) TRU 0

Fraser Valley Cascades (M) UFV

Final

Jan. 06, 2024

Thompson Rivers WolfPack (M) TRU

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	3	4	F
Fraser Valley Cascades (M) UFV	13	20	10	15	58
Thompson Rivers WolfPack (M) TRU	24	11	10	19	64

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | 1/6/2024 11:44:00 PM | TRU WolfPack

WolfPack grind out victory over Cascades for weekend sweep

Next Game:

at Calgary

1/12/2024 | 7:00 PM

Full Schedule

Jan. 12 (Fri) / 7:00 PM

at Calgary

History

QUICK FIRE

It wasn't always pretty but the Thompson Rivers WolfPack men's basketball team rode a stifling defensive performance to a 64-58 victory over the Fraser Valley Cascades inside the TCC Friday night.

DIFFERENCE MAKERS

The 'Pack relied on multiple players to put up their points. Thomas Olsen (13 points), Jason Okoro (12), Denys Bachurin (11) and Cyrus Harrison (9) led the way.
Dario Lopez was the star for UFV with 13 points and seven rebounds while Clay Kurtz added 11 points of his own.
Once again it was TRU's ability to take care of the ball that proved vital. The hosts turned the ball over just 14 times while the Cascades committed 24 turnovers.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The WolfPack came out of the gates on fire. They shot 55.6 per cent from the floor as a team while holding the Cascades to a mark 28.6 per cent en route to snagging a 24-13 edge after the opening ten minutes of play. Olsen and Bachurin were key to the hot start with seven and six points respectively.
Fraser Valley found an answer in the second frame, knocking down over half the shots they took as they outscored TRU 20-11 and cut the lead to just 35-33 at the halftime break.
Shutdown defence from both teams saw them hold each other to just ten points apiece in the third quarter as they entered the fourth and final frame with TRU leading by just two.
The game remained incredibly close down the stretch with UFV drawing even at 57-57 with just over a minute-and-a-half left to play, the first time that the game was tied since early in the first quarter.
The WolfPack refused to let the game slip away however and back-to-back buckets from Bost and Bachurin allowed them to take a five-point lead that was more than enough to see them ride out the remainder of the game.

NOTABLE

TRU moves to 3-5 on the season with the win while the Cascades fall to 3-7. The result sees TRU jump UFV for the 12th and final playoff spot.
The weekend sweep marks the first time TRU has defeated UFV twice in a Canada West campaign since the 2017-18 season.
TRU boasts one of the toughest defences in the league, this game marks the third time they have held an opponent under 60 points in just eight conference games this season.

QUOTABLE – Head coach Chad Jacobson

It was an ugly game but for us that's the world that we need to live in, we need to be able to win ugly games. We have to be able to defend and rebound in order for us to be successful, that's something we can always rely on. We aren't always going to be able to rely on hot shooting and scoring a lot of points, but we can always rely on our defence and rebounding and I thought that we did that tonight.
It's really important that we were able to pick up the sweep. We knew that this was a big series coming into the weekend. Fraser Valley is a team that is fighting for a playoff spot so we knew that we needed to come out and play hard and compete to give ourselves a chance to be successful and we did that both nights. I'm happy with the results and proud of the effort.

UP NEXT