VICTORIA, B.C. – The University of Victoria Vikes men's basketball teams are set for their regular season home openers this weekend, Nov. 13-14, against the visiting Saskatchewan Huskies. The Vikes men are currently third in the Pioneer Division with a 2-0 record, while the Huskies are 1-1 after splitting games with Manitoba.
 
The Vikes men have a reliable group of seniors in fifth-year guard Reiner Theil, fifth-year guard-forward Mack Roth, fourth-year forward Grant Sitton and fifth-year guard Brandon Dunlop. With the graduation of last year's Canada West MVP Chris McLaughlin and the departure of starting point guard Marcus Tibbs, the Vikes will have some big shoes to fill. McLaughlin and Tibbs were the team's top scorers last season when the Vikes finished as Canada West champions and fourth at CIS nationals.
 
Scoring strengths have been inconsistent throughout the pre-season as head coach Craig Beaucamp has been tuning his squad that includes six newcomers. Throughout the Guy Vetrie tournament, hosted Oct. 2-4, in Victoria, the Vikes had different names a top the scoring leaders including Sitton, Roth and Hassan Abdullahi. The Vikes went 1-2 against top teams Carleton, Saskatchewan and Fraser Valley.
 
The Vikes also toured Ontario, Oct. 22-24, playing Brock, McMaster and Guelph, only finding victory against the Gryphons.
 
Despite their 2-6 pre-season record the Vikes came through at the start of the season with back-to-back Canada West wins over Trinity Western last weekend, Nov. 6-7. The Victoria seniors led by example as Sitton put up 24 poitns and Roth and Dunlop added 20 and 18, respectively, as the Vikes dropped the Spartans 82-71 on Friday. The next match up saw Roth put up 28 points in a 78-61 dominating win over Trinity Western.
 
"It's important that we take it one game at a time," added Beaucamp, a five-time conference coach of the year. "We need to focus on each practice and game as an opportunity to get better. It's a long season and it's more of a marathon than a sprint."
 
Saskatchewan, despite splitting their opening weekend with Manitoba, are fully capable of an offensive outburst. Earlier in the year the Huskies entertained Victoria fans at the Guy Vetrie Tournament to an epic 82-80 victory over the five-time defending CIS champions, the Carleton Ravens. In that game Evan Ostertag  put up 23 points but more notably the senior was 14-for-16 from the line. Chan De Ciman added 13 points, while Shawn Lathan and Jauquin Bennett-Bore each had 11.
 
To date the Huskies are led by Ostertag, who barely steps off the floor, and is currently averaging 22 points per game. Burns is the top defensive player with an average of 5.5 rebounds per game, while the supporting cast of Alex Unruh, Trevor Severinski and Joe Barker will be important for this weekend's games.
 
Victoria and Saskatchewan will face off on Friday, Nov. 13 at 8:00 p.m. and again on Nov. 14 at 7:00 p.m. Both games are at the CARSA Performance Gym with ticket information at govikesgo.com/tickets. Live web streaming and stats are available by pay-per-view at canadawest.tv and free live stats are available online at canadawest.org.