After sweeping through the BCCAA with an undefeated 20-0 record including a blowout win in the championship final, the University College of the Fraser Valley women's basketball team felt strongly that this was their year to shine on the national stage.

They had enjoyed previous success on a provincial level only to fall short at the nationals but this year felt different. New coach Al Tuchscherer had instilled a heightened sense of confidence in their ability to control their won destiny and all things seemed to point to national glory.

Unfortunately things didn't work out they way they had hoped and they limped home from the CCAA National Championships on Sunday with a fifth place finish, one placing lower than last year.

After destroying Mount Saint Vincent from Nova Scotia in their opening round game, the Cascades found themselves up against tough Mount Royal from Calgary. After the first half UCFV found themselves down by five points, with a 25-20 score. In the second half they came out determined to erase more than a decade's worth of national disappointment and outscored Mount Royal in second half by one point. That wasn't enough for a win, however, and the Cascades ended up on the wrong side of a 51-47 score, despite 16 points and 10 rebounds from Canadian Player of the Year Lauren Alonzo.

Another of their triple towers, Jamie Born, was limited due to foul trouble and eventually fouled out of the game, "A number of things contributed to the loss," said National Coach of the Year Al Tuchscherer. "It was a learning experience for me personally as a coach. It was just a matchup of two very similar teams. If we played them 10 times in a year, we would probably split all ten games right down the middle."

The following game found the Cascades up against Sainte Foy from Quebec in a contest to determine the chance to play for the bronze medal. The Cascades came out of the gate strong and led by one, 27-26 at the half. In the second half, it all fell apart. Shooting just 23%, including 0-11 from three-point land, and 8-15 from the foul line, UCFV fell hard and succumbed to a devastating game from Sainte Foy's Myriam Lamarre, who had 29 points and 12 rebounds to lead the way to a 70-53 loss, the biggest one of the season for the Cascades.

Led again by Alonzo with 10 points and 9 rebounds, the Cascades found themselves in foul trouble again as both Jamie and Cassie Born fouled out and the three other starters, Kalisha Reid, Erin Lee, and Alonzo finished the game with four fouls each.

"It was one of the worst officiated games I've ever been a part of," said Tuchscherer. "It was tragic." Commenting on the dismal second half, Tuchscherer said, "We didn't come to play for a bronze medal and after having their hearts ripped out the night before, you could tell the girls just didn't have it the next day."

Through the three tournament games the Cascades never scored more than 53 points despite averaging 73.9 points per game in the BCCAA. "We became a little stagnant offensively throughout the tournament," said Tuchscherer. "We never got on track and we're usually a pretty high scoring team." Tuchscherer pointed to the fact that the team had never really been pushed all year as a factor in the disappointing result.

Despite the disappointing finale, the Cascades can hold their heads high, as they dominated the BCCAA and pretty much everyone else they played all year, finishing with only four losses against 38 wins.

Lauren Alonzo and coach Tuchscherer collected hardware as National Player of the Year and National Coach of the year respectively but their team-first mentality no doubt left them unable to fully enjoy their personal accomplishments.

"Talking to the players, I know that all it has done is make them more determined for next year. I feel bad for the fourth-year players who gave so much for it to happen and we just fell short, four points from the national final," said Tuchscherer. "But we're not leaving and nobody's discouraged."

The team loses four quality players this year as Lee, Tanya Campbell, Natilee Brown, and Dawn Gosselin have all completed their four years of eligibility. Once again for UCFV women's basketball, after a successful season, it's back to the drawing board.

By UCFV student Ted Leavitt

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