VICTORIA – The UVic Vikes men's basketball team got down early and could never recover in an 80-70 loss at the hands of the Brandon Bobcats in Manitoba on Nov. 4.
 
Trailing 21-13 at the end of the first quarter, a Scott Kellum three-pointer cut the deficit to just four points with 2:30 left in the third quarter but that was as close as the Vikes would come as the Bobcats offence caught fire down the stretch.
 
Fourth-year Vike Justin Kinnear led both teams with 24 points in the game, going 12-for-14 from the field and adding three rebounds. Mason Loewen added 14 points and ten rebounds while Scott Kellum and Jordan Charles both scored nine points on the night.
 
Defence wasn't the problem for the Vikes on night as they held the Bobcats to a season low 80 points. Brandon shot just 39 per cent from the field as a team while the Vikes were only marginally more efficient at 41. 5 per cent.
 
Turning the ball over 16 times to the Bobcats 10 and allowing Brandon to grab 12 offensive rebounds, more than made up for the Bobcats inefficient night from the field as the team put up 12 more shots than the Vikes in the game.
 
After a 6-0 Brandon run to end the first quarter and give them their 8-point advantage the game was incredibly even throughout the rest of the game, whenever the Vikes got too close the Bobcats always had an answer.
 
The loss drops the Vikes record to 1-3 on they year as they failed to win a game on their road trip to Manitoba.
 
The Vikes will get the chance to pick up their first road win of the season when they head to Langley next weekend for a pair of games against the Trinity Western Spartans on Nov. 10 and 11.
 
Both of those games can be watched live on canadawest.tv.
 
SCORING SUMMARY
UVIC: 13-19-19-19: 70
BDN: 21-20-19-20: 80
 
SCORING LEADERS
UVIIC: Justin Kinnear (24), Mason Loewen (14), Jordan Charles (9)
BDN: Tyvon Cooper (23), Jonathan Range (20), Pookie Saunders (14)