Every point Diego Maffia scores now will simply be piling on and making it more difficult for anyone in future years seeking to break his men’s basketball career team scoring record with the University of Victoria Vikes.
The seamless-shooting point guard had 20 points as the U Sports national top-ranked Vikes beat the Fraser Valley Cascades 100-75 on Saturday evening in Abbotsford as UVic moved to 8-0 in Canada West and 15-1 overall with the only loss coming against NCAA Division 1 Rhode Island. That followed his 16 points as UVic beat the Cascades (3-5 in conference) 98-77 on Friday night.
Maffia, out of Oak Bay Secondary, entered the weekend six points behind now former all-time UVic scoring leader Spencer McKay, who represented Canada in the Pan Am Games and FIBA World Cup. McKay had 1,657 career Canada West regular-season points between 1986 and 1991.
Maffia relegated 2000 Sydney Olympian Eric Hinrichsen, who had 1,586 points for UVic between 1994 and 1999, to third place on the all-time Vikes list and now sits atop it at 1,687 points.
“Spencer [McKay] shot me a message and that was so cool,” said Maffia.
“This individual [accolade] wasn’t my main goal, the team goal of the winning the national championship is, but I am still proud to have accomplished this.”
UVic head coach Murphy Burnatowski concurred: “It’s an amazing career accomplishment for a special player. That it comes in a program with such a storied history as UVic’s makes it all that more impressive and noteworthy. Everyone on the team is excited for Diego. But he has just one goal in mind this season, as does the whole team.”
Backing the production of Maffia, the defending U Sports national MVP and the two-time national scoring champion, on Friday was Claremont graduate Ethan Boag with 23 points, Renoldo Robinson with 14 and Cowichan Secondary-grad Shadynn Smid with 12.
Robinson, the standout from Quebec, added 17 points on Saturday, Smid 14, sophomore Griffin Arnatt out of Oak Bay 13, Boag 11 and Ryan Gallagher 10.
Fraser Valley led 25-18 after the first quarter Saturday before UVic pulled it out with a massive fourth quarter, outscoring the Cascades 30-10.
“We are going to get the best from every team and Fraser Valley made us work for it,” said Burnatowski.
“Good teams find ways to win these games and we kept our composure.”
Meanwhile, Fraser Valley (6-2) beat UVic (4-4 in conference) 68-62 in the women’s Canada West game Saturday as Abigail Becker scored 19 points for UVic, Tana Pankratz 15 and Makenna Anderson 12. UVic had beat the Cascades 71-67 on Friday.
