VICTORIA – After a late surge in the fourth quarter, the University of Victoria Vikes men's basketball team came up short on Jan. 22, losing 78-70 to the Winnipeg Wesmen. The Vikes are now 7-6 in Canada West action this season while the Wesmen move above .500 at 6-5 with the victory.
 
The Vikes trailed by as much as 22 points in the third quarter, but made things interesting by cutting the deficit to three points in the final minute of play before the Wesmen sealed the victory. Third-year guard Jordan Charles was the biggest offensive producer for the Vikes with 16 points. Fifth year Mack Roth and fourth year Grant Sitton added 15 and 12 points for the Vikes, respectively.
 
The Wesmen got another strong game from veteran fifth year Jelane Pryce with 24 points and nine rebounds. Second year Denzel Lynch-Blair and fourth year Jamar Farley added 19 and 15 points, respectively, while third year Ryan Oirbans scored eight points and six rebounds.
 
"Today we put ourselves in a hole early by not coming prepared," said Vikes head coach Craig Beaucamp. "We've talked in the past about having a good start on the road, but we didn't show that tonight. We have to show up better in the first quarter of games on the road. We didn't change anything going into the second half and we can take some pride in that, but it's always easier when you're chasing a lead because you have nothing to lose. We need to be in the game at all times and make sure we don't fall behind."
 
The Wesmen out rebounded the Vikes 26-19 in the first half, which helped in the home side build a 38-23 lead at the half. Farley led Winnipeg offensively with 11 points, while Roth contributed nine points for the Vikes. Charles had seven points and five rebounds for the Vikes in the half. Pryce and Sesay led the Wesmen with seven rebounds each.

After the Wesmen extended their lead to 50-28 early in the third quarter, the Vikes closed the gap in the late going with a 15-4 run and trailed 54-43 heading to the fourth quarter. Second-year Vike Justin Kinnear scored back-to-back baskets to end the third after not playing in the first 20 minutes.

Wesmen's Lynch-Blair left the game early in the fourth quarter with what appeared to be an injury to his right leg. Lynch-Blair had 15 points prior to the injury. Luckily for the Wesmen, Lynch-Blair returned to the game and finished with 19 points, five assists and three rebounds. The Vikes pulled within three late in the fourth quarter but couldn't pull even.

The teams return to the hard court Saturday, Jan. 23, at 2:00 p.m. PST at the Duckworth Centre for the second game of the weekend doubleheader. Pay-per-view with live stats are available online at uvic.canadawest.tv while free live stats can be found at canadawest.org



Game Summary:
                1               2             3            4               F
UVIC:     10            13            20            27            70
WPG:     19            19            16            24            78
 
Scoring Summary:
UVIC: Jordan Charles (16), Mack Roth (15), Grant Sitton (12)
WPG: Jelane Pryce (24), Denzel Lynch-Blair (19), Jamar Farley (15)