The UVic Vikes men’s basketball team delivered a weekend sweep of the Saskatchewan Huskies, following up Friday’s come-from-behind win with an 83-76 triumph on Saturday night at CARSA Performance Gym.
Coach Craig Beaucamp drove home the importance of this weekend’s set before the games.
“There’s a lot of parity and there’s only a couple of games separating a lot of teams. Going on the road, those games are never easy … so you really have to make sure you come ready to go in the home games and protect your home court,” Beaucamp explained.
“On the road, you go out and hope to pick up a game or two, but the home games have a lot of importance.”
Scott Kellum led the way with a game-high 27 points on Saturday, while Mason Loewen added 16 points and nine rebounds. Lawrence Moore had 21 in a losing cause for Saskatchewan.
“They’re a team we’re obviously really close with. Two games when you have them at home. You have to look after them and there’s nothing easy when you’re going back-to-back,” said Beaucamp, who said his team found a way despite not shooting well in the first half.
The Vikes, who outscored the Huskies 23-12 in the fourth quarter Friday, got off to a better start in Game 2, leading 9-2 early and 17-13 after the first quarter, then led by eight at the half and 54-50 after three quarters. UVic improves to 5-3 on the season with their fourth straight victory while the Huskies slip to 2-4.
In women’s play, the No. 8-rated Huskies remain undefeated at 6-0 with an overwhelming 96-63 victory over a rather flat looking Vikes team that has now suffered a fourth straight setback to even their record at 4-4.
The Huskies were 12-of-19 from three-point land, including 4-for-4 from Maya Olynyk, 3-of-3 for Madeline Humbert and 3-of-5 from Sabine Dukate.
“Total lacklustre effort from us,” said frustrated Vikes coach Dani Sinclair. “We had some energy from some kids off the bench. Offensively, in the first half, we were totally disorganized. Our bad shots were like turnovers that led to layups for them.
“It was the same story with the threes,” she said of uncontested shots beyond the arc. “To me, that’s lack of communication and a lack of effort to get through and contest. We have maybe one person playing at an elite level defensively in Marissa [Dheensaw]. It’s pretty scary giving up 80, 90 to nearly 100 points to anybody.”
Kristy Gallagher had a game-high 23 points for the Vikes.
Both Vikes teams now have byes this coming week before heading to Edmonton to face the U of A Golden Bears and Pandas in two weeks time before venturing into the holiday break.
“We have to think about what type of team we want to be and where we want to get to,” said Sinclair. “To almost be a no-show on Saturday night at home is baffling to me and it comes back to building those habits in practice.”
