VICTORIA - An advantage in the paint and some excellent work to claw back from an early deficit lifted the Westminster College Griffins to an 88-85 win over the University of Victoria Vikes men's basketball team on Friday night at McKinnon Gymnasium.
The Vikes (1-3) were led by 15-point efforts from guard Ryan Mackinnon (Comox, B.C.) and
Zac Andrus (Vachon Island, WA). Westminster (1-0) was led by AJ Reilly's game-high 23-point effort. The teams will play again tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at McKinnon Gynmasium.
BOX SCORE
"We had a number of defensive issues and our offence, despite the amount of points we scored, did not reflect how well we ran the offence," said Vikes assistant coach Craig Behan. "It's early in the season and we still have a lot of work to do."
UVic led 15-5 midway through the opening quarter, but Westminster College responded, going on an impressive 25-11 run to take the lead with 6:43 left in the opening half, including 9-0 run over two and a half minutes early in the second quarter. The Vikes played catch up for the rest of the evening.
The game featured eight lead changes and the score was tied five times, but every time the Vikes came back, the Griffins had an answer.
Mackinnon added three assists, two steals and six rebounds in a strong performance for UVic, but it was timely outside shooting - the Vikes were 11 for 22 from three-point range - that kept the host side close. Andrus was two-for-three from beyond the arc, Mackinnon three-for-six and freshman guard
Reiner Theil (North Vancouver, B.C.) was a perfect three-for-three as 44 of UVic's 85 points were on three-pointers.
The Vikes shot well overall with a 53.6% showing from the field - 63% alone in the opening half - and they never trailed by more than six points on the night.
But the Griffins cutdown on their turnovers after the opening 10 minutes and scored 27 points off 18 Vikes turnovers in the process. Overall on the evening they were also 53.6% from the field.
Reilly (San Diego, CA) was seven-for-10 from the floor and added two assists, two steals and four rebounds in a strong effort. Ben Walker (Lehi, UT) chipped in with 16 points, two assists and three boards, while Jake Orchard (Salt Lake City, UT) added 13 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals in the win.
The teams dual again on Saturday night at 7 p.m. at McKinnon Gymnasium. Live stats and streaming are both available at http://canadawest.tv. The game will also be broadcast on Shaw TV (Channel 11 in Victoria) on a tape-delay next week.
The Vikes open their Canada West regular season on Nov. 4 and 5 with games agains the Trinity Western Spartans in Langley, B.C.
