As if the -23 C temperature was not bad enough, the University of Victoria Vikes had to also suffer the wrath of the Alberta Golden Bears and Pandas for most of the weekend.
The visiting Vikes were given the cold shoulder by Mother Nature and they weren’t exactly feeling any warmth inside the Saville Centre on the U of A campus until they ran off a strong second half to defeat the hosts 66-60 on Saturday in Canada West men’s basketball play.
The Vikes women were unceremoniously dumped 99-60 by the Pandas on Saturday after a 77-55 setback on Friday, just before the Golden Bears served up a 71-51 win over Victoria that same night.
“I’m happy we came out of here with one win, for sure. It was a big character win. Just look at the standings and you see how tight things are,” Vikes men’s coach Craig Beaucamp said over the phone before venturing out into the cold.
“This is why I moved from Saskatchewan.
“I thought we played well in the first half tonight, but we just didn’t reward ourselves,” he said, focusing on the result.
“We had some really good looks, but weren’t rewarded. In the second half, we made some plays.”
Up 11 at one stage in the fourth quarter, the Vikes had it cut down to just three late.
Brandon Dunlop hit one of two from the free-throw line for Victoria before Alberta’s Colby Jackson missed an easy lay-up with under 20 seconds remaining in the game to help clinch it. Mack Roth closed it out with four free throws.
Victoria got off to a much better start on Saturday, up 18-11 after the first quarter, but having that lead cut to a slight 28-27 advantage at halftime.
The Vikes stretched it to 44-39 after three.
Grant Sitton and Jordan Charles led the way offensively with 16 points each for the now 7-5 Vikes while Roth collected 15 points and eight rebounds. Mamadou Geye answered with 16 for the 5-6 Golden Bears.
“The biggest things were Jordan got back on track and we moved the ball around better tonight. There was a lot of one-on-one stuff [Friday] night,” Beaucamp said.
In the women’s game, the Pandas broke open a close 44-37 game at the half. In a replay of the night before, Alberta outscored Victoria 30-12 in the pivotal third quarter and ran away.
Jenna Bugiardini led the now 5-7 Vikes with 16 points while Nicole Karstein added 11 points and nine rebounds.
Megan Wickstrom replied with a game-high 19 for the No. 6-ranked Pandas, who improve to 10-1.
Both Vikes teams will be in Winnipeg next weekend.
mannicchiarico@timescolonist.com
Twitter/tc_vicsports
