It felt just like old times. The only things missing were the Bird-Busters towels University of Victoria fans used to wave in the rivalry basketball games against the UBC Thunderbirds in the 1980s and 1990s at McKinnon Gym.
The Vikes busted some Birds, regardless, sweeping all four sa国际传媒 West men’s and women’s games over the weekend on Ken and Kathy Shields Court at CARSA Gym.
The Vikes men (9-1) handed the Thunderbirds (13-2) their first losses of the season, capped by the 96-89 victory Saturday night before a sold-out crowd up to the half-capacity allowed due to pandemic restrictions.
“This feels good. We believe we’re one of the top teams,” said Vikes shooting-guard Diego Maffia, following the marquee match-up of teams ranked in the U Sports national top-10. The Oak Bay product Maffia had 16 points.
Classy fifth-year point guard Scott Kellum, a steady veteran hand at the Vikes helm and outstanding all weekend, reflected on the results.
“We’ve never swept UBC since I’ve been here,” said the native of Issaquah, Washington, who is studying for a master’s degree in business.
“We are deep. We have confidence in everybody. We share the ball. Everybody contributes,” said Kellum, who had 12 points Saturday following his 26 in Friday night’s 90-84 victory.
The Vikes received strong forward play from Matthew Ellis with 20 points, Dominick Oliveri with 16 and sa国际传媒 Under-19 team invite Ethan Boag with 14.
The Vikes were returning after having four games postponed due to COVID protocols and not having played since Dec. 4. But any worries about rust and cohesion were quickly dispelled by their weekend performances.
Two of the postponed games will be made up Wednesday and Thursday when UVic travels to Kamloops to play the Thompson Rivers WolfPack. That will be followed by home tilts next Friday against the WolfPack and Saturday against the Fraser Valley Cascades.
The UVic women, meanwhile, dispatched the Thunderbirds 82-69 to follow up Friday’s 67-54 victory. It was a deeply satisfying weekend for Carrie Watts. The Vikes’ first-year head coach was assistant coach to Olympian and head coach Deb Huband at UBC since 2007, and a national champion Thunderbirds player before that, before being pass over for the UBC head coaching job when Huband retired last year.
“This is a big rivalry game between these two teams, regardless of my story,” said Watts, a former national team player at the Pan Am Games and FIBA world championship.
“Any rivalry win is special.”
UVic (8-4) has done it three times this season, including on a buzzer beater at UBC (5-9).
Ashlyn Day led UVic with 22 points. The night before, Dayscored 42 points to become only the third Vikes player to score more than 40 points in a game along with Amira Giannattasio, who had two 44-point games in 2018, and Olympian Carol Turney who had 42 in 1978.
“Ashlyn will keep scoring. She is the best player I’ve played with,” said Vikes shooting-guard Calli McMillan, who notched 16 points Saturday.
It was, however, a balanced team effort.
“We pushed the ball up well, shared the ball, and took care of it better in terms of turnovers,” said McMillan. “We are growing in confidence and will keep pushing the pace.”
The UVic women are at home next Friday against Thompson Rivers and next Saturday against Fraser Valley.
