Wednesday

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

Contact: Mark Kosak

Director of Athletics

University College of the Fraser Valley

Phone: 604-854-4583

UCFV Cascades return from China with a winning record

Abbotsford – The UCFV women’s basketball team concluded their two-week tour of China with a 58-55 victory over Beijing Normal University (BNU) last Thursday, May 27, to finish with a 2-1 record against their Chinese opposition.

Earlier in the tour, the Cascades lost to Sichuan Normal University (SNU) in overtime 84-81 but rebounded to beat SNU 53-41 three days later. The team returned to Canada on Friday.

The Cascades leading scorer in their final game was once again Jamie Born with 12 points, while Shiloh Minor and Cassi Born turned in strong performances in a physical affair.

The team and the coaching staff were pleased with the Cascades’ performances, given the unusual playing conditions, the lack of information about the opposition, and the quality of the two opponents. SNU is the #4 ranked university women’s basketball squad in China while BNU is considered the ‘Harvard’ of China’s university system. Both schools boast student populations of approximately 30,000 compared with UCFV’s 7,600 students.

“I think we performed very well considering that our season was long over and the Chinese were in the middle of theirs. We tired out in that first game as a result of jet lag or we might have won all three games,” said coach Al Tuchscherer. “The score in the last game against BNU was much closer than it should have been. The Chinese have good athletes but it was apparent that their coaching lags behind Canadian standards.”

During the tour, there was strong interest from the Chinese to conduct similar future exchanges in order to learn from the Canadian players and coaches. Interest and participation in the sport of basketball is on the rise as the result of the rising popularity of Yao Ming, a Chinese national playing in the NBA.

“Our Chinese colleagues have invited us to return and conduct player and coaching clinics in the future. That’s something we’re very interested in doing but we’ll need to examine the logistics and costs of furthering these exchanges,” said Mark Kosak, UCFV director of athletics. “It was a wonderful educational experience for our athletes who indicated that they had the trip of lifetime. If for no other reason, I would like to conduct future exchanges to provide other UCFV student athletes with the same type of cultural experience.”

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