Both University of Victoria Vikes basketball teams get back to work tonight and Saturday as the sa国际传媒 West season returns to action with the locals playing host to the Thompson Rivers WolfPack at CARSA gym.
Coach Craig Beaucamp鈥檚 men鈥檚 team (6-4) hopes to build off five wins in their last six regular-season outings against a WolfPack team (5-7) that has won three straight.
鈥淭hompson Rivers is playing some really good basketball right now, they鈥檝e won three straight sa国际传媒 West games and look like they are starting to gel as a unit, so we will have our hands full this weekend,鈥� said Beaucamp, whose team won two of three exhibition games at the University of Laval during the holidays after an impressive split against No. 3 Alberta prior to the break.
鈥淒efence was the one area that we thought we had to get better in as the first half progressed. We鈥檝e gotten better at that and now rebounding is the big area for us, there is a direct correlation between the top rebounding teams in our conference and the teams that finish at the top of the conference,鈥� he added.
In the WolfPack, the Vikes will face a team that features the second and third best rebounders in the conference in Luke Morris and Mike Rouault.
The Vikes take to the floor at 8 p.m. tonight and 7 p.m. on Saturday, following the women鈥檚 games.
Coach Dani Sinclair鈥檚 women鈥檚 Vikes are also 6-4 on the season and meet the 7-5 WolfPack at 6 p.m. and 5 p.m., respectively.
The Vikes ended 2017 with two big wins over then No. 10-ranked Alberta in Edmonton and, like the men, won two of three during a holiday tournament at the University of Toronto.
鈥淵ou are always trying to look ahead, so as important as those wins were they mean nothing if we don鈥檛 perform in the second half of the season,鈥� Sinclair said of the victories in the Alberta capital. 鈥淲e have to look at what is in front of us. We have a difficult weekend against a really tough, up-tempo team that can get hot in [Thompson Rivers].鈥�
Tonight鈥檚 games are part of Dairyland鈥檚 Nights of Lightning in which fans are encouraged to wear black to create total darkness as the Vikes 鈥渂ring the lightning.鈥�
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