Box Score Abbotsford - The University of the Fraser Valley Cascades defeated the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns, 69-68, on a Joel Friesen three point shot at the buzzer to advance to the Canada West “Final Four” for the first time in the team’s six year affiliation with Canada West. The Cascades will now travel to Saskatoon to compete in the Final Four hosted by the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.
The Cascades were led by Freeman with 15 points and 4 assists. Jasper Moedt added 13 points and 5 rebounds, while Friesen scored 12 points and recorded 2 assists. Mike James had a monster of a game off the Cascades bench scoring 10 points and pulling down a team high 7 rebounds.
The Pronghorns Dominyc Coward led all scorers with a game high 20 point performance. Morgan Duce, added 15 points in the loss. Coward and Derek Waldner each pulled down 10 boards for the Pronghorns.
Tonight’s game was the same as the previous two games, very competitive with the lead changing hands numerous times. The first quarter was very close with both teams starting off slowly on offense and playing great defense. The Cascades led by one point after the quarter. In the second the Cascades caught fire and led by as many as 12 points but the Pronghorns were not done as they narrowed the UFV lead to two points at the intermission.
The third quarter saw UFV put a little breathing room between themselves and Lethbridge building up a six point lead which turned into a 12 point lead early in the fourth quarter before the Pronghorns came all the way back to actually take a five point lead with under two minutes remaining. The turning point came as Lethbridge had an opportunity to hit two free throws with one and a half minutes remaining and missed both, cue the historic Cascade comeback. Down by five points with a minute left, UFV rallied to tie the game at 66, only to see Lethbridge score the go ahead basket with 13 seconds remaining. After a time out UFV had several opportunities to tie the game but with time running out Sam Freeman found Joel Friesen who hit a miracle three pointer at the buzzer to send UFV to the next round.
“I really respect the Lethbridge team, and thought they played a fantastic weekend of basketball. We wanted the ball in Joel’s hands at the end of the game, but there is no way I can even pretend we drew that up, it was an unbelievable clutch moment, and we excited to be moving on to the final four,” said UFV head Coach Barnaby Craddock.
Despite the disappointing end to the season, the Pronghorns have a lot of positives going forward. This season was the first time in 12 season the program finished the conference schedule with a record above 500 and with all 12 players on tonight’s roster eligible to return next season the future looks bright.
“I couldn’t be prouder of our team,” said head coach Dave Adams. “We played the fourth ranked team in the nation to a one possession series.”
