The University of Victoria Vikes have booked themselves a spot in the Canada West Final Four gold medal game thanks to a dominant 77-57 victory over the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades, Friday afternoon at the Saville Community Sports Centre in Edmonton.
 
BOX SCORE
 
Victoria, the No.4 ranked team in CIS hoops, were in control from opening whistle to the final buzzer, dispatching the No.8 ranked Cascades by a 20 point margin. The victory propels the Vikes into the conference championship game, to be played Saturday in Edmonton, against either the No.3 ranked Alberta Golden Bears or the No.10 ranked Saskatchewan Huskies.
 
More importantly, however, is that with the win, the Vikes have assured themselves a spot at the CIS Final 8 championship, which gets underway next week in Ottawa.
 
Third-year point guard Marcus Tibbs, who is originally from Seattle, led the Vikes by scoring a game high 16 points, while also recording an impressive eight assists. Canada West second team all-star Chris McLaughlin added 15 points and 10 rebounds for Victoria, while first team all-star Terrell Evans also chipped in with a double-double, scoring 10 points and10 rebounds.
 
Fraser Valley was paced offensively by St. Albert, Alberta born guard Klaus Figueredo, who scored 13 points, while Kadeem Wills and Kevon Parchmen added 12 and 11 points respectively.
 
The game, however, was a defensive clinic. Victoria, coached by 2014 Canada West coach of the year Craig Beaucamp, boasts the stingiest defence in the conference, yielding just 60.2 points against per game, and it showed in the opening game of the conference Final Four. They were especially dominant on the glass, corralling 55 total rebounds on the night, compared to just 34 for UFV, including a 44-24 advantage under the defensive hoop.
 
"Overall, I think we got back to doing what we do well and that's playing defence," said Vikes head coach Beaucamp. "We kept the pressure on them the whole second half and we got a good start to the third quarter, which is key."
 
When the Vikes did have the ball, they shot the lights out from outside. All told, Victoria shooters sunk 11 of 26 three-point attempts, while Fraser Valley managed just one trey, in the fourth quarter, on 25 looks.
 
Victoria opened the game with a 10-2 run, and allowed the Cascades just nine total points in the opening quarter. Kyle Peterson, an Edmonton born point guard, was red hot in the first half, draining a trio of three-pointers to help Victoria to a 36-26 half-time lead.
 
After the break, Victoria poured in another 22 points, including three more treys, as they ballooned their lead to as much as 30 points in the third quarter. The Cascades, meanwhile, struggled mightily shooting the ball, and racked up a bagel, 0-16, from outside the arc after three quarters.
 
The teams traded buckets in the fourth, but Victoria was never threatened and was able to cruise to a 77-57 victory and an opportunity for the Vikes to win their first Canada West title since the 2005-06 season.
 
"You only get so many opportunities to play for a championship," explained Beaucamp on tomorrow's gold medal game. "I think that it's one of those things where it's the league you play in all year and the chance to win that championship, you want to make the most of it and give yourself the best possible seed moving into next week."
 
The Alberta Golden Bears and Saskatchewan Huskies will meet in the second semi-final, to be played at 7:00 p.m. MT on Friday night, with the winner meeting Victoria in the gold medal game on Saturday, time to be determined.

SCORING SUMMARY
UFV: 9-17-12-19: 57
UVIC: 15-21-22-19: 77

SCORING LEADERS
UFV: K.Figueredo (13), K.Wills (12), K. Parchmen (11)
UVIC: M.Tibbs (16), C.McLaughlin (15), K.Peterson (11)