Shadynn Smid’s two gym-rattling dunks Saturday night, that animated the already lively crowd, said it all as the University of Victoria Vikes showed why are the No. 2-ranked men’s basketball team in the country.
The defending sa国际传媒 West champions (7-1 in conference) broke the century barrier twice over the weekend against the University of British Columbia-Okanagan (2-8) in adding a 115-65 victory to Friday night’s 101-76 win on Ken and Kathy Shields Court at CARSA Gymnasium.
“I play above the rim and that’s what I’m known for,” said the six-foot forward out of the Cowichan Secondary Thunderbirds.
Smid is among a number of Island players on the Vikes, along with Diego Maffia and Griffin Arnatt out of Oak Bay Secondary, Izzy Helman and Ethan Boag from Claremont Secondary and Sergio Pereira out of Shawnigan Lake School. It is becoming reminiscent of the 1980s dynasty era Vikes teams that were largely built around Island talent.
“It’s very cool that is team is very local and shows the talent on the Island,” said Smid.
Point-guard Maffia, the defending sa国际传媒 West MVP with another sublime performance, led UVic with 29 points Saturday and rookie Arnatt 20.
“We are a scoring team but we have to work just as hard defensively if we want to go far at nationals,” said Smid.
Those thoughts were echoed by Vikes head coach Craig Beaucamp: “We can obviously score, with different people contributing, but we want our identity to also be about defence.”
The Vikes did not have to look far for motivation over the weekend after UBC-O stunned UVic in the final regular-season game last year. The Vikes overcame the blip — perhaps it served a purpose and was good for them — and went onto win the 2023 sa国际传媒 West crown and advance to the U Sports national semifinals
UVic moved to 15-3 overall, with two of its losses against 2023 NCAA tournament teams Xavier and Penn State.
The UVic Vikes women’s team (1-7 in conference) got a morale-boosting 76-63 first sa国际传媒 West win of the season in downing UBC-O (5-5) earlier Saturday evening at CARSA.
Rookie standout Makena Anderson from St. Michaels University School, vetran Mimi Sigue and Tegan MacKinnon scored nine points each for UVic while veteran Tana Pankratz, returning this weekend from injury, added four assists and two blocks.
The Vikes teams are on the road the next two weekends, beginning next Friday and Saturday against the Trinity Western University Spartans in Langley.
OFF THE RIM: Reports are the Canadian women’s basketball team will hold its pre-Paris Olympics training camp in Victoria if the favoured squad advances out of its qualifying tournament Feb. 8-11 in Sopron, Hungary. “sa国际传媒 has a veteran team that has the experience,” said UVic head coach and former national-team player Carrie Watts, who expressed optimism sa国际传媒 will qualify.
“[The potential pre-Paris camp] would be a great opportunity for local fans to see the best women’s players in sa国际传媒.”
