On Friday night, the UFV Cascades came out hot, had a slow second quarter, and used a big third quarter to pull away from the UNBC Timberwolves. Rinse and repeat on Saturday night, as Matt Cooley’s triple double propelled the Cascades to a sweep over the TWolves on January 11th in Prince George, B.C.
In the second quarter, UNBC chipped away at the Cascades advantage, as freshman Fareed Shittu was able to finish two dunks in a three minute span. However, the ball movement of Fraser Valley continued to give the TWolves trouble, as post Matt Cooley was able to find cutting teammates for easy baskets. At the half, the Cascades held a 43-33 lead.
Much like Friday night, it was the third quarter that was the story. The Timberwolves went ice cold at the offensive end, while the Cascades started to get hot. Parm Bains showed why he is as good a shooter as there is in the conference, making a pair of three-pointers, while Jaskam Bajway found space in the corner, draining two of his own. The visitors led 62-47 after the frame.
Shittu made UNBC history in that third quarter, registering his 95th rebound of the season. That marked the highest single season total for a TWolves freshman, passing Navjot Bains, who went on to play at UFV for the Cascades. To make Shittu’s accomplishment more impressive is that he achieved the feat in his 12th game, while Bains took 22 games to reach it in the 2012-2013 season.
“I feel fantastic. Being a fifth year and coming out here, it’s obviously fantastic to get a triple-double,” said Cooley. “I was obviously aware of it. My guys were rooting me on from the bench. This is a first for me.”
“He’s a big body, so he was taking some of our posts down low, and he was hitting with that. We had to help on that, and he was looking guys off, making passes inside and outside,” said UNBC’s Chris Ross of Cooley’s triple double. “They have a whole bunch of shooters, so it really spaces the floor for him and he has a lot of room to operate.”