Tale of the Weekend
VICTORIA – For the second time in three weeks the UVic Vikes women's basketball team will do battle with one of the top teams in the nation when they travel to Manitoba for a best-of-three quarter-finals series against the Winnipeg Wesmen.
The teams will meet on Thursday, February 23 at 5 p.m. and Friday, February 24 at 1 p.m. with a possible third game getting underway at 11:30 a.m. on the 25.
The Wesmen are currently ranked No. 6 in the U SPORTS national rankings and finished the season with a record of 18-2, the best in the conference. However, with Canada West using RPI, not points, to determine playoff seeding this year the Wesmen dropped to No. 3 in the conference, putting them and the No. 6 Vikes on a collision course.
Just two weeks ago the Wesmen stormed into the CARSA Performance Gym and picked up a pair of victories over the Vikes.
In losses of 88-76 and 80-69, the Vikes got a first-hand look at how lethal one of the highest scoring offences in the conference can be.
"They are very talented offensively and athletic," said Vikes head coach
Dani Sinclair. "You're likely not going to keep them to 50 or 60 points, it would be great if we could do that, but it's just about trying to make things difficult and not giving them easy baskets."
For the Vikes to be better on defence this weekend, they will first need to focus on offence.
"For us it starts on the offensive end, taking care of the ball," said Sinclair. "We allowed way too many points off turnovers, we need to not take shots that lead to open layups for them."
Last Time Out
The Vikes secured their spot in the quarter-finals thanks to back-to-back victories of 67-54 and 68-60 over the MacEwan Griffins. It was a rotating cast of athletes that stepped up for the Vikes in the first round,
Nicole Karstein scored 20 points on Friday and
Jenna Krug stepped up with 22 on Saturday.
"Not only will that need to continue, it's going to need to be from more than one person," said Sinclair. "We are not going to be able to beat a team like Winnipeg if just one person is putting the team on their shoulders."
"It was a very valiant effort by Jenna but what we look at as promising is that we've had some more contributions from players off the bench."
The Wesmen meanwhile, had last week off, as the top-four teams in Canada West all earned a bye through the first round of the playoffs. A bye week at this time of year can always be a blessing or a curse, the positives of resting players after a long regular season schedule being balanced by the negatives of possibly taking momentum away from a streaking team.
"You have to go out there and find your advantages where you can and I think that is an advantage," said Sinclair of the Wesmen bye. "We are going to be in potentially a better rhythm than them. Long-term that bye helps you but I think for this weekend and especially in that first game, it's an advantage for us."
By the Numbers
18.7: The number of points per game Antoinette Miller scored in the regular season, the most in the conference.
10: The number of rebounds per game
Jenna Bugiardini recorded, also the most in the conference.
2 & 5: The games should be high scoring with both teams ranked in the top five in points scored per game. Winnipeg is second, while the Vikes are fifth.
Coach's Take
Dani Sinclair, Vikes head coach
On the Thursday start to the series.
"At this point it's kind of nice. Basketball is a sport where you need a few days to recover but practices can be a bit monotonous at this time of year. You want to keep that momentum going, our girls could play tomorrow."
"It starts with us taking care of the ball and that allows us in the half-court to come up with some schemes to take the ball out of certain people's hands. At this time of the year it comes down to broken plays and you would like to think that your strategy wins games but it often comes down to which team makes the multiple efforts and wins the loose balls and rebounds. We lost by 12 and 11, if we can win a couple more possessions I like our chances."
"We've gone a little bit deeper into the rotation and those people have played very specific roles. It's going to be more about our top girls players being our top players and everyone else filling in their roles."
"It's going to take a team effort and I think we are pretty confident that we can do that."
Game Information
Thursday, Feb. 23 – 5:00 p.m. – @ Winnipeg Wesmen, Winnipeg, MB
Watch live on canadawest.tv
Friday, Feb. 24 – 1:00 p.m. – @ Winnipeg Wesmen, Winnipeg, MB
Watch live on canadawest.tv
GAME 3 IF NECESSARY
Saturday, Feb. 25 – 11:30 a.m. – @ Winnipeg Wesmen, Winnipeg, MB
Watch live on canadawest.tv
Winnipeg Wesmen (18-2)
U Sports National Ranking: 6
Canada West Standings: 3
RPI: 0.5931
Last Week: BYE
Streak: W 3
Last Canada West Title: N/A
Last U SPORTS Title: 1994-95
