Vikes basketball teams record wins at Manitoba
After falling asleep late in the second quarter, the University of Victoria Vikes woke up in time in the fourth to pull out a 71-68 Canada West basketball victory over the host Manitoba Bisons on Saturday.
Up 29-13 after the first quarter, and stretching the advantage to 18 points at one time in the second, the Vikes fell into an ugly slumber — outscored 21-9 in the third quarter — and required some desperation late in the game to earn the win.
Down 68-65, coach Dani Sinclair’s women’s team used scores from Ashlyn Day, Amira Giannattasio and, finally, Kristy Gallagher’s short jump shot to pull out the victory in the dying minutes.
“Maybe I put the fear into them or something after the first quarter,” Sinclair said. “I said: ‘The last thing we can do right now is fall asleep, give up offensive boards, give up threes [threepointers] and foul.’ It was like opposite day, because we did all those things in the second quarter.
“The one thing that kept turning the tide was turnovers. We turned it over a bunch when they made their run to tie and go ahead, and they did a little bit, too, to allow us to stick around.”
Sinclair thought her team might be able to weather the third, but they continued to struggle until the pivotal fourth quarter. “The game never got more than three points [spread] either way. You never want to get yourself into that position and give up the lead, but it easily could have gone the other way if we had continued to get ourselves caught up in that emotion,” Sinclair said.
Giannattasio recorded 25 points for the Vikes while Gallagher and Day finished with 13 and 11, respectively. Taylor Randall had 25 points, including one of her three three-pointers with just over two minutes remaining, which gave the Bisons the 68-65 advantage.
They failed to hang on and watched Brittanie Parisien’s long three-point attempt bounce off the front of the rim at the buzzer.
The Vikes improve to 9-4 in the standings with the win, the team’s fifth consecutive victory, while the Bisons fall to 8-7 after having a five-game win streak snapped on home court.
“We can’t get wrapped up in that and just keep playing one game at a time. As cliché as that is, Manitoba will be back at home [today] and will want to avenge this loss, for sure,” Sinclair said.
The Vikes men hung on for a clutch 81-76 win over the Bisons, making up for a pair of fourth-quarter setbacks the previous week. The Vikes led 67-60, but watched that dwindle to a 77-76 advantage, only to outscore the host Bisons 5-0 down the stretch.
Five Vikes finished in double figures — Hayden Lejeune with 15 points, Jordan Charles 13, Scot Kellum and Jason Scully 11 each and Mason Loewen with 10 points, but adding 14 rebounds.
Justus Alleyn had 27 points for the Bisons, who fall to 10-5 while the Vikes improve to 7-6.
Vikes coach Craig Beaucamp said: “We talked about it in the timeouts during the fourth, how we had been in close situations last weekend and we let two games slip away from us, so we talked about being determined and not letting that happen again. The guys found some ways down the stretch . . . to make some plays, get some stops, and come out with a hard-fought road victory.”
The women and men face Manitoba again today at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Pacific time, respectively.