VICTORIA – The UVic Vikes men's basketball team poured in a season-high 93 points en route to recording a weekend sweep of the Trinity Western Spartans in a 93-77 victory in Langley, B.C. on Nov. 11.
The win moves the Vikes back to .500 on the year, as the team now sits at 3-3 through the first three weekends of Canada West play. The Spartans meanwhile remain the only team in the conference without a win and sport a record of 0-6.
Just one night removed from a 23 point victory over the Spartans, Trinity Western kept the game a lot closer on night number two, and the Vikes led by just five points entering the fourth quarter.
"You know it is going to be closer, the other team is going to try and bounce back and we just weren't very good defensively at the start of the game," said Vikes head coach
Craig Beaucamp. "Once you give a team a little bit of confidence then you have yourself a game."
Both teams shot the lights out in the contest as the Vikes were good on 56 per cent of their shots from the field and 48 per cent from three-point land in the game. The biggest advantage in the game came on the boards. UVic pulled down 43 rebounds compared to the Spartans 27, while also limiting Trinity Western to just five offensive rebounds in the contest.
For the second night in a row
Jason Scully was the offensive catalyst for the Vikes, as the second-year forward went off for 22 points and was 4-for-6 from beyond-the-arc.
"We needed that," said Beaucamp of Scully's game. "He was solid offensively. It was nice to get two back-to-back solid performances from Jason."
The Vikes depth in scoring shone once again on the night as all five starters and
Scott Kellum off the bench ended the night in double-digits.
Mason Loewen had 15 points and seven rebounds while
Justin Kinnear added 14 and seven in another solid night for the fourth-year forward,
After the Spartans kept it close through the opening three quarters, the Vikes outscored Trinity Western by 11 points in the final frame to solidify their lead and cruise to victory.
"We got a couple consecutive stops and then also scored," said Beaucamp of his team's strong finish to the game. "The one thing we did was score tonight and that made up for some breakdowns defensively."
The Vikes will return to Victoria for a pair of games inside the CARSA Performance Gym next weekend, against the Saskatchewan Huskies on Nov. 17 and 18.
SCORING SUMMARY
UVIC: 22-27-17-27: 93
TWU: 21-23-17-16: 77
SCORING LEADERS
UVIC: Jason Scully (22),
Mason Loewen (15),
Justin Kinnear (14)
TWU: Vartan Tanielian (24), Max Viitala (17), Pogos Trunyan (11)
