LANGLEY, B.C. - The University of Victoria Vikes men's basketball team defeated the Trinity Western Spartans 78-61 to sweep their two-game 2015 Canada West season-opening series and improve to 2-0. The Spartans, reversely, are winless at 0-2.
BOX SCORE
The Vikes took a 30-20 lead into halftime before exploding with a 28-point third quarter to put the game out of reach. The Spartans had their best effort of the night in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Vikes 27-20, but similar to Friday's game, Victoria's lead proved insurmountable.
The Vikes were led by Mack Roth with 28 points while Jordan Charles had 14 points and Kai Greene added 10 points. Justin Kinnear also contributed to the win with a team-high eight rebounds. The Vikes as a team were strong on rebounds, picking up 33 loose balls in the defensive end and minimizing turnovers to 13.
Spartans Josiah Allison and Lucas Mannes led Trinity Western's scoring efforts with 15 and 13 points respectively. Patrick Vandervelden had a game-high 10 rebounds. The Spartans shot 31.3 per cent as a team while Victoria shot 40 per cent, including a nine for 25 night from beyond the arc. Allison was the only Spartan to hit a 3-pointer as he went five for eight while TWU was five for 20 overall.
The Spartans came out with high-energy in the first quarter, improving on Friday's first 10-minute result when they were behind by 10 points, and trailed only be three, 12-9 after the opening frame. The Spartans led in rebounds 16-11 but were just four-for-20 from the field while Victoria was four-for-15.
The Vikes pushed their lead to 10 points at halftime, with Victoria shooting 34.4 per cent and the Spartans shooting 21.2 per cent.
While the Spartans continued to struggle to connect on shots, Victoria extended its lead to 58-34 by the end of the third quarter. Vandervelden provided solid defense, collecting eight defensive boards through 30 minutes, but the Vikes hit six 3-pointers to open up a 24-point lead.
Victoria had control of the game in the fourth quarter and opened up as much as a 29-point lead. Inside the final four minutes of the game, the Spartans found a late rhythm, which was led by Allison, who had four fourth-quarter 3-pointers, to give the Spartans a late spur.
The Vikes host the Saskatchewan Huskies Nov. 13-14 in their inaugural regular season games at the CARSA Performance Gym. The Spartans travel to Vancouver to face the UBC Thunderbirds.
Game Summary:
1 2 3 4 F
UVIC: 12 18 28 20 78
TWU: 9 11 14 27 61
Scoring Summary:
UVIC: M. Roth (28), J. Charles (14), K. Greene (10)
TWU: J. Allison (15), L. Mannes (13), D. Richey (9)
