A glimmer led to more shimmer Friday night on Ken and Kathy Shields Court at CARSA gymnasium as the University of Victoria Vikes (3-6) halted a four-game Canada West women’s basketball losing streak with an 85-52 victory over the Mount Royal Cougars (3-4) of Calgary.
“We’ve been inconsistent but have seen glimmers of this,” said UVic head coach Carrie Watts.
“We got points off defensive stops. That takes pressure off the offence.”
Which is just fine by Watts, the former national-team player who was known for her defensive intensity for the UBC Thunderbirds and in representing Canada at the 2006 FIBA World Cup and 2007 Rio Pan Am Games.
“We worked all week on the defensive side of the ball and put it into action tonight.”
Defending conference scoring-champion and second-this-season Ashlyn Day led the Vikes with 18 points. Kate Johnson added 11 points and Abigail Becker 10.
“We focused on defence and used the turnovers to our advantage,” said Day, the fifth-year star out of Kelowna.
“And our steals led into transition and easy points.”
As important as the defensive pressure was UVic’s game on the boards with Mimi Sigue’s 13 rebounds and Brooklyn White’s 10 leading the way.
“We are a pretty big team and applied great pressure on the boards with 20 second-chance points in the first half. That also gives your offence a bit of breathing room,” said Watts.
“There was a real desire to get after the ball.”
The Canada West men’s game between the U Sports nationally No. 2-ranked UVic Vikes (6-2) and Mount Royal (4-2) was in progress at press time. Flashing their national ranking, the Vikes led 63-36 at the half.
The UVic and Mount Royal squads meet again tonight in CARSA gym with the women’s game at 5 p.m. and the men’s at 7 p.m.
cdheensaw@timescolonist.com
