Tale of the Weekend
 
VICTORIA – Currently in a five-way tie for eighth through 13th in the conference, the UVic Vikes men's basketball team will take on one of the teams they are tied with, in a pair of games against the Fraser Valley Cascades on the road this weekend.
 
"There is a lot of parity, right from the top to the bottom," said Vikes head coach Craig Beaucamp. "Nothing is a given, and you have to come prepared every night. It's a precarious time of the season, most of the student-athletes have been going at it for five or six weeks in a row now."
 
The game on Friday, February 3, gets underway at 8 pm with the rematch scheduled for 7 pm the very next day.
 
With both teams holding a record of 7-9 and trapped in the log jam that is the middle of the Canada West conference, the upcoming weekend will play a large part in how the playoff race shakes out.
 
"We know they can score and they have had some very good results in the second half of the year, knocking off Alberta and playing Calgary really tough," said Beaucamp. "We are going to have our hands full, we have to play well on the defensive side of the ball for sure."
 
The top 12 teams in Canada West will qualify for a spot in the playoffs with seeding then determined by a teams' RPI.
 
RPI is calculated using a combination of winning percentage, opponents' winning percentage, and opponents' opponents' average winning percentage and is being used this year due to the unbalanced nature of the Canada West schedule.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Vikes were able to break out of their slump at home last weekend, picking up their first home win and weekend sweep of the season in one go, as they defeated the Trinity Western Spartans.
 
Winning by scores of 72-63 and 69-65, the Vikes were able to find their groove defensively to pick up the victories.
 
The Cascades were also at home last weekend, where they earned a split with Thompson Rivers University. Six players hit double-digits in their 80-72 win Friday night, but the Cascades couldn't match their scoring out-put one night later in a 79-67 loss on Saturday.
 
By the Numbers
 
47.4: The percentage at which first-year guard Scott Kellum is shooting from beyond the arc, second best in the conference of players that have more than 50 attempts.
 
39.5: The number of rebounds per game Fraser Valley pulls down as a team, fifth most in the conference.
 
16.8 & 11.5: Only two players on the Cascades are scoring double-digits points per game, Fifth-year guards Manny Dulay and Vijay Dhillon are the focus of the offence.
 
Coach's Take
Craig Beaucamp, Vikes head coach
 
"Mental fatigue may be setting in so it's really important to remain fresh and focused at this time of the year."
 
"These are very important games that we need to take one game at a time. We will see how Friday night goes and then refocus on Saturday."
 
"They have a couple senior guards in Dulay and Dhillon that can really put a lot of points on the board."
 
Game Information
 
Friday, Feb. 3 – 8:00 p.m. – vs. Fraser Valley Cascades, Envision Athletic Centre, Abbotsford B.C.
Watch live on canadawest.tv


Saturday, Jan. 28 – 7:00 p.m. – vs. Fraser Valley Cascades, Envision Athletic Centre, Abbotsford B.C.
Watch live on canadawest.tv

Fraser Valley Cascades (7-9)
U Sports National Ranking: N/A
Canada West Standings: t-9
RPI: 0.4661
Last Week: 1-1
Streak: L 1
Last Canada West Title: N/A
Last CIS Title: N/A