Second-year guard Mitch Goodwin has been resurgent in the second-half of this season. He led the Heat with 14 points against the Cascades (Photo by Alex Hill).
Men’s Basketball (Canada West conference play)
Saturday, January 24, 2014 SCHEDULE & RESULTS | BOX SCORE
Envision Athletics Centre, Abbotsford, B.C.
| Score by Periods |
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
4th |
Total |
|
| UBC Okanagan |
18 |
11 |
18 |
8 |
55 |
Record: (3-12) |
| Fraser Valley |
14 |
10 |
21 |
24 |
69 |
Record: (10-5) |
KELOWNA, B.C. – Unable to close out the final ten minutes in Canada West men’s basketball action, the UBC Okanagan Heat saw a fourth-quarter explosion by the host Fraser Valley Cascades bury them in a 69-55 result Friday night, backed by the confounding perimeter shooting of Manny Dulay. Dulay went off from three-point range in the second-half, going 5-9 from that distance. He would put up 17 points for the night.
“We played our game and some of our best stretches of basketball for three quarters,” Heat head coach Pete Guarasci described postgame. “[In] the fourth quarter we digressed and played individually on both ends of the court.”
The league’s 18th leading scorer in Yassine Ghomari (Vancouver, BC) did not put up a shot in the first half, instead playing primary facilitator to dish out five assists and only turning the ball over twice in that time. He would wrap up with nine points and six assists without turning it over again before fouling out in the fourth.
Ghomari smartly went on the attack in the waning moments of the fourth, catching UFV’s Klaus Figueredo on his fourth and fifth fouls to leave the game with 7:40 to play. However, the combined efforts of Jasper Moedt and Dulay would be the difference for the Cascades as the team completed a 24-8 run over the final ten minutes of the game.
Moedt posted a monster double-double 29 points and 14 rebounds. He and Dulay each posted 17 points to combine for 34 of the team’s 45 in the second half.
The Heat defense was incredibly efficient in the first half as they held the Cascades to only 27.6% shooting before a 53.3% second half would vault them to 40% for the night, a mark the Heat would match.
Not only was the Heat’s defense efficient, but it was acutely smart in its play as very few fouls would be committed through the first three quarters. Second-year guards Mitch Goodwin (Kelowna, BC) and Greet Gill (Osoyoos, BC), alongside third-year James Lum (Vancouver, BC) and rookie Cameron Friesen (Abbotsford, BC), would total zero fouls amongst themselves in that time, demonstrating the careful defensive play the team employed.
Goodwin put up a team-high 14 points and added three rebounds and steals apiece in a team-leading 31 minutes of play.
The now 3-12 Heat will continue searching for win number four tomorrow night in a rematch with the Cascades, who pad their standing as second-seed in the Pacific to a 10-5 record.
“We need to refocus and learn from our mistakes quickly as we play tomorrow night in a quick turnaround,” Guarasci added. “We need to demand from ourselves with the mental aspect of the game.”
Tip-off is 7 p.m. at the Envision Athletics Centre.
Heat notes … Rookie Cam Friesen, a graduate from Abbotsford’s W. J. Mouat secondary, saw 25 minutes of floor time off the bench and put up six points off of two three pointers. He was 2-3 from range…. In the UFV win the Cascades extended their winning streak to seven games, the longest in the history of UFV’s CIS-level competition. The Cascades have now consolidated their hold on second in the Pacific division with a two win cushion over TRU and TWU.
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