If the University of Victoria Vikes want to make the move into the upper echelon of the Canada West men’s basketball standings, the message they need to take into the final six games is as clear as the nose on Cyrano de Bergerac’s face.
With the next five games at home, coach Craig Beaucamp’s Vikes (8-6) need to take care of business, starting tonight and Saturday against the UNBC Timberwolves (7-9).
The Vikes can’t afford to let it get away, like they did two weekends ago in disappointing losses to Thompson Rivers at CARSA gym in which the locals experienced costly fourth-quarter catastrophes.
They rebounded extremely well last week to sweep the Manitoba Bisons on the road.
“When the games got close [in Manitoba] we just looked back to the weekend before and were determined not to let those games slip away,” said Beaucamp. “Learning how to win tight games is a skill, and hopefully we can take away a little bit of that because there are obviously going to be some close games down the stretch.”
The eighth-place Vikes will also face Mount Royal of Calgary at home next weekend before the regular-season-ending home-and-home series against a much tougher UBC Thunderbirds club.
“All the games at this time of year are important for everybody. They [UNBC] are playing well, they are coming off a good road trip themselves where they split in Brandon and arguably had a chance to win both games. We know that they will be tough,” said Beaucamp, whose team takes to the Ken and Kathy Shields floor at 8 p.m. tonight and 7 p.m. on Saturday.
Coach Dani Sinclair’s women’s team, at 10-4 and with six straight wins, is in a much more comfortable position, but can’t afford to let up against UNBC, the squad from Prince George, which is 8-8 and on a four-game win streak of its own.
The Vikes would love to finish in the top four to earn a bye in the first round of the post-season and are currently fifth.
Home victories would go a long way to establishing that goal.
“It feels like we have been on the road for a while, especially with us doing that trip out East over the holidays,” said Sinclair. “Things got going really quickly after the break and we really didn’t get a day off last week with us playing Sunday, so not travelling is huge.
“[Tuesday] felt like a Monday in terms of grogginess so it’s nice to be home and it’s nice to be home for the foreseeable future, and hopefully we can extend that past the regular season,” she added.
The Vikes take to the floor at 6 p.m. tonight and 5 p.m. on Saturday and will face the Timberwolves, who are led by Maria Mongomo and Vasiliki Louka, who sit third and fourth in points per game in the Canada West.
“They’re going to be very tough to deal with, they’ve proven themselves over the course of this year,” Sinclair said of the duo. “They also have some pieces around them that have helped take a little bit of the pressure off them so that you can’t just solely focus on those two.
“We are trying to find a way to limit them, but to a certain extent they are going to get what they get. Mongomo creates things defensively for herself and they can both rebound offensively. If you can take away some of those and make them work as hard as you can in the half-court, you can keep them to a reasonable number.
“Louka is the most pure post player in our league,” added Sinclair.
The Timberwolves will have to lock down Amira Giannattasio, who recorded 47 points over the two UVic wins last weekend against Manitoba. The Vikes, as a whole, average 74.9 points a game, third-best in the conference.
