It is a cross-strait rivalry writ large. But the University of Victoria Vikes made short work of it and left little doubt as to their standing atop the U Sports national top-10 men’s basketball poll by sweeping the national No. 2-ranked UBC Thunderbirds in their much-anticipated two-game Canada West weekend set at War Memorial Gym in Vancouver.
There is nothing like an old-school, gym-rattling hoops derby between UVic and UBC. The rivalry stretches from UVic’s two-time Olympians UVic Eli Pasquale and Gerald Kazanowski, and Kelly ‘Skywalker’ Dukeshire, dominating in the 1980s to UBC’s payback in the 2010s through Victoria-product and national-team player Conor Morgan, with numerous memorable meetings in-between.
This weekend’s edition added to the lore. According to sportswriter Howard Tsumura of Varsity Letters, citing Martin Timmerman’s usportshoops.ca website, this is the first time UVic and UBC have met as the two top-ranked teams in the country since 1991 when future Canadian national-team players Spencer McKay of UVic and J.D. Jackson of UBC went sneaker-to-sneaker. Despite the respective luminous hoops histories at both schools, this is rarefied territory, as it would be for any conference rivalry in the country.
UVic beat UBC 91-81 on Saturday night as Diego Maffia scored 25 points and Renoldo Robinson 18. That followed UVic’s 93-80 victory Friday night at War Memorial as Oak Bay-grad Maffia scored 23 points and Claremont-grad Ethan Boag and Cowichan Secondary-grad Shadynn Smid 17 each and Robinson 12.
UVic went to 13-1 overall and 6-0 in conference and UBC 16-2 and 4-2.
The prodigious shooting-guard Maffia moved six points behind all-time UVic scoring leader McKay and is set to become the Vikes career leader next weekend when UVic plays Fraser Valley in Abbotsford. McKay, who represented Canada in the Pan Am Games and FIBA World Cup, 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 second at 1,651 points.
“Individual accomplishments feel good but I just want to win,” said Maffia.
The scheduling gods have conspired to have the landmark moment come on the road: “I wish it could be at home but that doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen,” said Maffia, of the scheduling fates.
Meanwhile, the U Sports national third-ranked UBC Thunderbirds (6-0 in conference) swept UVic (3-3 in conference) 93-54 and 68-53 in their weekend Canada West women’s basketball set. Mimi Sigue led UVic with 15 points in the first game Friday while Sigue had 12 points and Abigail Becker 11 in the second game Saturday.
