Calgary- The Mount Royal Cougars take a close win 74-72 against the undefeated University of the Fraser Valley Cascades. The Cougars were led by fifth year Awet Abraha and guard Manok Akwl.  

The Cougars battled hard in the first quarter after a tough game last night, taking an early lead courtesy of Manok Akwl who brought in seven points. The Cougars are leading the game 17- 15 against Cascades at the end of the first.

In the second quarter, the Cougars continued to play well against the best team in the Explorer division. Mount Royal put up another 21 points, while the Cascades just couldn't keep up only pulling in 15 points of their own. The Cougars finished the first half leading UFV 38-30.

After half, the Cascades started to gain some momentum, scoring 22 points in the third. Despite the strong play of UFV guard Manny Dulay, it still wasn't enough to get past the Cougars who continued to lead the Cascades 58-52 at the end of the third.

The fourth quarter was intense, as an early push by UFV had both teams trading leads. With only a minute left and the game tied 72-72, the Cascades took three fouls to push MRU into bonus. Awet Abraha and Derek Wolf both scored a foul shot a piece making it 74-72.

Despite two strong plays by the Cascades, the Cougars managed to outlast a 13.6 second push to hand UFV their first loss of the season.

With the win MRU improves to 7-9, while UFV drops to 15-1.

The Cougars travel down to TRU to face them on February 6 at 8 p.m., while UFV will be travelling to UNBC to face them on Friday at 8 p.m.