VICTORIA – The UVic Vikes women's basketball team picked up their third straight victory to start the 2017-18 Canada West season with a close 93-87 win over the Brandon Bobcats in Manitoba on Nov. 3.
 
Kristy Gallagher led the game in scoring, recording 30 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the field while also adding eight points from the charity stripe.
 
"We have multiple people who have the ability to lead and she found herself in that position tonight," said Sinclair. "The thing that Kristy did best was get to the free throw line and that was huge for us."
 
First-year Vike Ashlyn Day had the best game of her young career in the blue and gold, scoring 19 points and adding six rebounds as well as six steals.
 
"I thought we had great contributions from a lot of different people," said Sinclair. "Ashlynn Day had some big rebounds and some big steals for us."
 
Marissa Dheensaw also cracked double digits on the night, recording 14 points to go along with six rebounds, three steals and three assists.
 
The Vikes got out of the gates slow and were down by as many as 12 points, three minutes into the second quarter when they kicked things into high gear.
 
"We made a good push in the second quarter and created some stuff out of our defence," said Sinclair. "We were able to even it up at halftime and then it was a back and forth affair for the rest of the night."
 
The score was tied at 80 apiece with just two and half minutes left to play when Gallagher stepped up big for the Vikes.
 
The fourth-year guard from Sidney, B.C. scored nine of the team's final 12 points in the eventual six-point victory.
 
"We made some plays at the end of the game and were able to secure the win," said Sinclair. "It was a tough battle on both ends."
 
These same two teams are back in action tomorrow night in Brandon, the opening tip is scheduled for 3 p.m. and the game can be watched live on canadawest.tv
 
"We understand how tough it is going to be tomorrow night to get another win but if we stay focussed and play better defensively than we will give ourselves a chance to do that," said Sinclair.
SCORING SUMMARY
UVIC: 13-27-24-29: 93
BDN: 21-19-31-16: 87
 
SCORING LEADERS
UVIC: Kristy Gallagher (30), Ashlyn Day (19), Marissa Dheensaw (14)
BDN: Hailey Maas (22), Keisha Cox (19), Amy Williams (12)