Head coach Dani Sinclair told University of Victoria Vikes prize first-year recruit Tana Pankratz: 鈥淚t鈥檚 after Christmas now, you鈥檙e not a rookie anymore.鈥�
Well, Pankratz still is, but you get the coaching point being made.
The six-foot-one Pankratz scored nine points Friday night as the Vikes defeated the UBC-Okanagan 68-43 on Ken and Kathy Shields Court at CARSA gym.
The graduate of Yale Secondary in Abbotsford did it with a little help from her older friends.
鈥淭he older players on the team say my ceiling is really high, so they really push me,鈥� said Pankratz.
The emerging forward certainly has a lot of veteran role models on a Vikes team that moved to 7-2 in sa国际传媒 West and which was ranked in the U Sports national top 10 earlier this season.
鈥淭ana has so much potential and we expect a lot out of her, and she has the capability to do it, even this early in her career,鈥� said fifth-season Vikes shooting-guard Kristi Gallagher.
鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 until my second season that I really got the opportunity to slide in and make an impact.鈥�
Sinclair said Pankratz suffers from the 鈥渃urse of high expectations.鈥�
鈥淪he is still learning how to play hard and that is part of her learning curve. Tana dominated in high school and could take breaks. You can鈥檛 do that at this level. You have to be going hard, or ready to, the whole 40 minutes.鈥�
Gallagher and Katie Langdon led UVic with 12 points each Friday with Morgan Roskelley adding 11 and Pankratz, Ashlyn Day and Calli McMillan nine each. Ana Evans had nine points for UBC-O, which lost its eighth consecutive game in falling to 1-10.
The Vikes, meanwhile, announced their big-name rookie recruit for next season is six-foot Mimi Sigue of St. Albert, who already knows CARSA gym, after leading Alberta to the national silver medal in the facility last summer in the 2019 sa国际传媒 Basketball U-17 championship.
CANADA WEST MEN鈥橲: The UVic men came into Friday鈥檚 game against UBC-O with sa国际传媒 West rebounding leader Dominick Oliveri, the third-year American discovery out of Whatcom Community College, in a walking cast following the Christmas break. A recovery timeline wasn鈥檛 given, but the injury will certainly affect the Vikes down the stretch.
Even without Oliveri, the Vikes (7-2) won their sixth consecutive conference game with a 91-64 victory over UBC-O (1-10) on Friday night on fine backcourt performances by Scott Kellum, Graeme Hyde-Lay and rookie star Diego Maffia.
UVic and UBC-O meet again tonight at CARSA gym with the women鈥檚 game at 5 p.m and men鈥檚 at 7 p.m.
