Cascade Drives Past Kwantlen University
BOX SCORE
PORTLAND, Ore. - The Cascade men's basketball team defeated Kwantlen University, 85-73 Friday night in a non-conference game.
Josh Brown scored 21 points and added 8 rebounds to lift Cascade (7-1) to an 83-72 win over Kwantlen University (3-4). Brown dominated against the larger Eagles' front line, hitting 8-of-13 shots from the floor and going 4-for-4 from free throw line.
"I thought Josh (Brown) had a great all-around effort tonight and Ben (Pawlak) sure made a lot of clutch shots to keep us going against a good Kwantlen team," Head Coach Anthony Baugher said. "I think our bench played excellent and really allowed us to impose our style during some crucial minutes in the game."
The Cascade bench certainly performed well, scoring 29 points. The Thunderbirds continued to be one of the nation's most unselfish teams as well, dishing out 18 assists. Cascade also had 13 steals (Saelee 4) and outrebounded Kwantlen 38 to 30.
A baseline dunk by Josh Brown at the 10 minute mark in the second half started a 12-2 run that allowed Cascade to bust the game open. "We needed that run in the second half to secure the win, Josh really got us going with the dunk but Jared Mace and Tommy Allen provided the much needed defense to sustain it," Coach Baugher said. "Our defense really sparked our transition tonight, we are in our element when we can get up and down the court."
Ben Pawlak scored 24 points to go along with his 5 assists to lead all scorers. Jared Maced added 10 points and 4 assists, and the Barker brothers each chipped in 8 points for the T-Birds.
"I think that it was a good win for us, we were able to work on some things to get us ready for conference play, "Assistant Coach Adam Decker said. "Everyone was able to get good minutes tonight and we had the chance to play some different lineups, our players responded well to the adjustments."
Kwantlen was paced by Nick Lafleur's 18 points.
The Thunderbirds will return to the hardwood on Friday, December 19th at Eastern Oregon University, game time is 7:30pm.