Fans at McKinnon Gym welcomed back University of Victoria Vices basketball on Saturday, after a strange facsimile of the men’s team lost Game 1 of their best-of-three Canada West playoff opener on Friday. The Vikes picked up the pieces of Friday’s 79-51 loss, and defeated the Winnipeg Wesmen 75-61, evening the series at a game apiece.
For the Vikes women, the season ran aground in Regina on Saturday. Despite a gritty effort that was much improved over their Game 1 loss on Friday, the Vikes fell 82-68 to the powerful Regina Cougars, who took the best-of-three quarter-final series 2-0.
The men will play a deciding Game 3 today, starting at 2 p.m. at McKinnon.
“We got embarrassed last night,” Vikes coach Craig Beaucamp said. “We just needed to show up in every variety.”
“We did a gut check.”
Unlike Friday, when the Wesmen blasted off to a big lead, the Vikes started with a 13-2 advantage, but it didn’t last long. Various Wesmen charged through the Vikes defence, taking advantage of some missed Victoria shots and turnovers to close the gap to 16-15 at the end of 10 minutes.
“They’re quite athletic, and they’ve got a lot of real good players.”
The Vikes fought back, and the fans went crazy when John Woldu stole the ball, and passed it behind his back to Terrell Evans for the layup at the halftime buzzer, to put the Vikes up 38-29.
Steven Wesley finished with 16 points, and Christopher Baxter had 10 for Winnipeg, while the Vikes had five players in double figures. Evans scored 18, Chris McLaughlin 17 (along with 11 rebounds), Kyle Peterson 16 (4-for-6 from beyond the arc), and Marcus Tibbs and Reiner Theil had 11 each.
The Vikes women, after losing 82-67 on Friday, opened Game 2 with a determined defence-first attitude. They were unable to ever get the upper hand in the game, but scrapped to within two points midway through the second quarter.
Trailing just 39-33 at the half, the Vikes showed no quit, but just couldn’t stop the Cougars. Third-year guard Madi Docherty hit four three-balls, and finished the night with 22 points.
For the Vikes, Sarah Semeniuk, in her last game as a Vike, picked up 14 points, Jenna Bugiardini had 12, and Nicole Karstein 11. The Cougars will have to wait for other Canada West quarter-finals to be decided next weekend.
In men’s playoff series action, Alberta and UBC are even at a game apiece — the T-Birds won 79-78 on Saturday — Saskatchewan defeated Thompson Rivers 2-0, and Fraser Valley dispatched Lethbridge 2-0.
• Rookie Jon McKay took silver in the 1,500m freestyle on Saturday, the last day of the CIS swimming championships in Toronto.
• The Vikes men’s and women’s relay teams won both the 4X400 and 4X800 relays at the Canada West track championships in Edmonton. Individual men’s medal results included — 600m: 1. Brendon Restall; 1,500m: 1. Thomas Riva, 3. Kyle Irvine; 1,000m: 2. Thomas Riva, 3. Olivier Collin. Women’s results — 600m: 2. Rachel Francois, 3. Grace Annear; 1,500m: 2. Shauna McInnis; 3,000m: 3. Maddy MacDonald.
The Vikes men finished second and the women fourth in the team standings.
