Tale of the Weekend
 
VICTORIA – The University of Victoria Vikes men's basketball team will hit the road with their 2017-18 season on the line when they take on the Saskatchewan Huskies in a Canada West play-in game on Friday, Feb. 9 at 5 p.m.
 
Taking place in Saskatoon, SK the game will see the ninth-seeded Vikes taking on the eight-seeded Huskies in what it is, on paper, one of the closest match-ups in the Canada West playoffs.
 
Both of these teams ended the regular season with identical records of 10-10. The Huskies RPI of .4960 compared to the Vikes mark of .4954, ensured that Saskatchewan would have home court advantage in the single-game elimination play-in round.
 
The winner of Friday's game will go on to face one of the four teams that earned a bye through to the Canada West quarter-finals. The Alberta Golden Bears (19-1), UBC Thunderbirds (17-3), Calgary Dinos (16-4) and Lethbridge Pronghorns (12-8) will all get the opportunity to sit at home and scout their potential opponents.
 
The Vikes enter the game with recent history on their side, they swept these very same Huskies by scores of 87-77 and 83-76 earlier this season in Victoria.
 
Defensively, the Vikes held the Huskies to just 12 points in the fourth quarter in the first game, while Justin Kinnear, Jake Newman, Jason Scully, Jordan Charles and Taylor Montgomery-Stinson all hit double-digits in points en route to the victory. In the second game, Scott Kellum went off for 27 points and the Vikes bench outscored the Huskies reserves 35-2 to complete the sweep.
 
Last Time Out
 
An up-and-down season was capped off with two tough losses to the UBC Thunderbirds last weekend for the Vikes, while the Huskies split a pair of games with the Regina Cougars to enter the playoffs winning eight-of-ten games in the second half of their schedule.
 
The vaunted T-Birds offence more than lived up to the hype last weekend, as the Vikes struggled to contain UBC's attack in losses of 95-69 and 109-68.
 
Saskatchewan pulled a Jekyl and Hyde act last weekend, defeating Regina 93-80, before losing the second game by a score of 81-76. Fourth-year guard Lawrence Moore was named the Canada West First Star of the Week after he put up 67 points all by himself over the two games.
 
By the Numbers
 
48.3: Second-year Vike Jason Scully was the top sharp-shooter during the Canada West regular season, leading the conference in three-point field goal percentage.
24: Moore finished the regular season with the second-most points per game in the conference.
193: With the teams extremely close in most categories, one of the spots the Vikes hold the advantage is beyond the arc, they hit 35 more three-pointers than the Huskies in the regular season.
  
Coach's Take
Craig Beaucamp, Vikes head coach

On the games that the teams played in November. 
"I don't know if we can take too much away from that weekend. The games were early in the year and they are quite a bit different than when we played them. There are a few things like matchups and that type of thing, but they've added an additional player since then that is playing a significant role for them and they were probably one of the hotter teams in our league during the second half of the season."

On Lawrence Moore 
"He's one of the top scorers in our league. He's a big part of what they do offensively, gets a lot of shots up and is a difficult matchup. You have to try to harness him the best you can and then control some of the other guys so that they don't have multiple players making a mark on the scoresheet because one way or another Moore is going to find some way to have an impact."
 
"It seems like for the entire second half of the season every game has been pivotal. Most teams have been in must-win situations for a lot of the second half so I don't know if we will see much difference in the intensity but the room for error is obviously smaller, so getting off to a good start and staying out of foul trouble will be extra important."
 
"We have been 50-50 home or away so I don't think going on the road hurts us necessarily, there is just a lot of parity in our league so games are close whether you are at home or away."
 
Game Info
Thursday, Feb. 1 – 8:00 p.m. – vs. UBC T-Birds, CARSA Performance Gym – Watch live on canadawest.tv 

Saskatchewan Huskies (10-10)
Canada West Standings: t-8th
RPI: .4960, 8th
PF: 1564
PA: 1553
Last Week: 1-1
Streak: L 1
Last Canada West Title: 2009-10
Last U SPORTS Title: 2009-10