The defence was a little looser, but the University of Victoria Vikes women鈥檚 basketball team came up with a second straight victory in Kamloops on Saturday night, dumping the host Thompson River WolfPack 80-70 in sa国际传媒 West play.
Unlike the previous night, the Vikes had to fend off a hungrier WolfPack club, pulling away from a tight 57-56 lead after three quarters for the 10-point victory to improve to 6-4 on the season. Thompson Rivers slips to a sluggish 2-10 mark.
The Vikes had difficulty handling Shenise Sigsworth, who had a game-high 17 points, all in the opening half.
The WolfPack were also 5-of-11 from the three-point arc compared with 2-of-6 for UVic by the midway mark.
That changed in the fourth quarter as Kristy Gallagher came alive for the second straight night to pace the Vikes offensively with 15 points, 11 of which came in the final frame including three three-pointers.
Amira Giannattasio and Jenna Bugiardini also had 15 points each, while Kamloops native Nicole Karstein pumped in 14.
Michelle Bos had 14 points for the WolfPack, all in the second half.
Gallagher is coming back from knee surgery in August and is back competing at her usual high level.
鈥淪he鈥檚 put so much time into her game and has worked hard to get herself back to where she鈥檚 at, and I think everybody is really excited for her to be back playing,鈥� Vikes coach Dani Sinclair said of Gallagher.
鈥淚t鈥檚 nice having her back in form.
鈥淪he played those games against UBC just before Christmas, but those were her first games in about six months.鈥�
The two weekend wins come at a good time for the Vikes, who will travel to Kelowna next weekend to face UBC Okanagan in another pair of road games.
鈥淲e have some history with TRU and a lot of respect for the team. We know what they can do,鈥� Sinclair said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 always tough to beat a team back-to-back, especially away. That鈥檚 the big challenge of every weekend and we need that, for sure, to start the new year.鈥�
In men鈥檚 play, the Vikes were trumped 78-71 by TRU as Volodymyr Iegorov led the way with 20 points for the WolfPack, while Joe Davis and Derek Rhodes added 19 and 17, respectively.
Scott Kellum led UVic with 15 and Grant Sitton was kept to 12 after recording 30 in a win the previous night.
Thompson Rivers improves to 6-6 while the Vikes fall to 3-7.
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