The University of Victoria Vikes women's basketball team fought through a number of push-back efforts from the Trinity Western Spartans but persevered to give new head coach #Rich Chambers# his first career regular season win with the program in an 82-73 win at the Langley Events Centre on Friday night.

BOX SCORE

Senior guard #Debbie Yeboah# of Winnipeg had an outstanding debut with a game-high 24 points as five Vikes were in double-digit scoring. #Jessica Renfrew# of Victoria had 14 points, #Chelsea McMullen# of Prince George, B.C., 13 points, #Cassandra Goodis# of Penticton, B.C., 12 points and freshman #Shaylyn Crisp# of Victoria 10 points.

Former Vike Tiffany Olsen led the Spartans with 23 points, while Simon Fraser transfer Laurelle Weigl added 20 in the loss for Trinity Western.

The Vikes (1-0) will play Trinity Western (0-1) again on Saturday at 5 p.m. LIVE STATS AND VIDEO

UVic shot over 50 per cent from the floor on the night and put together a number of runs, but untimely turnovers and some inconsistent play that showed signs of youth and inexperience allowed the Spartans to come back a number of times.

The Vikes led early, 11-3. but five points off turnovers in a row allowed the Spartans to claw back and trail 11-8.

"It's a good win for the kids. Offensively we're OK, but defensively we were pretty scary at times," said Chambers. "We were good at times, too, but we were undisciplined and showed our youth."

UVic led the see-saw battle 23-16 after the opening quarter and held a 37-31 lead at the halftime break.

Good defensive rebounding allowed UVic to stay up but the Spartans tied it at 56-56 in the closing seconds of the third quarter.

However, another run - this one a 7-0 streak - allowed the Vikes to re-establish a solid lead  at 63-56. Yeboah was very effective in the second half - she shot 11 for 13 from the charity stripe in the second half - and helped UVic to stretch the lead to 11 at 70-59.

But with seven minutes left, #Sarah Semeniuk# of Fruitvale, B.C., fouled out and with about three minutes remaining the Spartans tied the game at 70.

Baskets by Yeboah, McMullen and a trey from Crisp gave UVic a 77-72 lead with 1:30 remaining and the Vikes shot effectively from the line to close out the game.

"They don't want to drop two at home and we know they will play harder and be way tougher tomorrow night," Chambers said. "We will need to be ready."