CALGARY 79
VICTORIA 75
The University of Victoria Vikes men’s basketball team took great pride in knocking the previous No. 9-rated Saskatchewan Huskies out of the nation’s Top 10 rankings after a pair of victories last weekend at CARSA performance gym.
Coach Craig Beaucamp’s crew was close to pulling off a similar trick this weekend, settling on a split with the No. 7 Calgary Dinos — falling short in a 79-75 loss on Saturday, after a last-second one-point win on Friday.
The now 5-1 Vikes were honourable mentions on last week’s CIS poll, but have definitely opened some eyes early on in the Canada West campaign.
Calgary, now at 4-2, may take a slight fall in this week’s national rankings and the Vikes may make their first appearance.
Not that it matters to head coach Craig Beaucamp.
“We just try and focus on this game, the next game and the next practice,” said Beaucamp, who stressed the rankings take care of themselves.
“People talk about those kind of things, but you don’t get to nationals by rankings.
“I don’t care if you’re first or 10th, you have to win your way there. For us, it’s so early in the year, I don’t think that makes too much difference. The bottom line is we’re trying to get better,” added Beaucamp, who said the score flattered his team on Saturday.
Canada West top point-getter Thomas Cooper led the way for Calgary with 21, while Lars Schlueter added 19. Grant Sitton and Mack Roth had 18 and 16, respectively for Victoria, which travels to Lethbridge next weekend to face the Pronghorns before the Christmas break kicks in.
In women’s play, it continues to be close but no cigar for the Vikes, who led 38-37 at the half, but couldn’t hang on against the Dinos, losing 84-72. Calgary led 54-51 after three quarters.
“We can’t give up 80-plus points a game,” said Vikes coach Dani Sinclair.
“That’s what it comes down to. The last four games, when the game has been close at the end and we need to get stops, we don’t. We just don’t. That’s a hump we have to get over.
“We have to know that it’s a long season and we do have a young team. We’ll have time to work on these things. We can’t hang our heads.
“You have to become tougher and that’s a large portion of what defence is.”
Claire Colbourne had 28 points for Calgary, which improves to 5-1. Avery Snider, Jenna Bugiardini and Nicole Karstein had 21, 16 and 15 points, respectively, for the now 1-5 Vikes.
mannicchiarico@timescolonist.com
Twitter/tc_vicsports
