The University of Victoria Vikes men鈥檚 basketball team may have been on the wrong side of one of the most lopsided scores in CIS national championship history Friday night in Ottawa, but after a strong bounce-back game Saturday afternoon, the Vikes still have a chance to bring home a little hardware. But more importantly, a lot of respect.
Led once again by centre Chris McLaughlin, the Vikes pulled away from the UBC Thunderbirds in their Consolation semifinal at Scotiabank Place and went on to down the sa国际传媒 West-champion T-Birds 71-65. UVic will now play the Quebec champion McGill Redmen of Montreal in today鈥檚 Final 8 Consolation final with a chance to finish the tournament in fifth place.
鈥淚t ain鈥檛 over yet,鈥� said McLaughlin in a statement after he poured in a game-high 20 points and added six rebounds. 鈥淲e鈥檙e still playing, and that鈥檚 what counts.鈥�
Playing the Thunderbirds for the fourth time in the last three weeks, the Vikes were very familiar with their arch-rivals, unlike Friday night when they were beaten by 40 in the quarter-finals by the top-ranked and two-time defending champion Carleton Ravens.
And it was McLaughlin who showed the way, scoring more points (six) in the first four minutes against UBC, then he did the entire game against the Ravens.
鈥淓verybody鈥檚 dream was dashed last night,鈥� Vikes head coach Craig Beaucamp said in a statement.
鈥淚 think the incentive was that we didn鈥檛 play very well last night and got embarrassed a little bit. Taking nothing away from Carleton, but we thought we hurt ourselves and didn鈥檛 play up to our potential.鈥�
It helped UVic that UBC was playing without CIS first-team all-star Doug Plumb, who suffered a concussion in UBC鈥檚 semifinal loss to the Acadia Axemen. Brylle Kamen helped pick up some of the slack and led UBC with 19 points. T-Birds forward and Mount Douglas grad Conor Morgan had a strong game, scoring eight points and collecting 11 rebounds.
But the Vikes defence, ranked No. 1 in the sa国际传媒 West in the regular season, stymied UBC in the second half and UVic shooters Terrell Evens and Brin Taylor began to catch fire. Evans and Taylor each finished with 16 points, with Taylor hitting three three-pointers. UVic finished the season winning three of the four games against UBC.
鈥淲e were decent defensively. They only scored 65, so we limited them on the defensive end,鈥� said Beaucamp. 鈥淲e also got some inside touches. Chris had a big game for us at the other end. We were just more solid on both sides.鈥�
Now, they gear up for the Redmen, who downed Cape Breton 86-84 in overtime in their Consolation semifinal.
鈥淢cGill鈥檚 a very good team, they play hard defensively and they can really shoot it, so it鈥檚 going to be a tough game,鈥� Beaucamp said.
On the championship side, the host Ravens downed Acadia 84-69 in one semifinal, while the Lakehead Thunderwolves beat the Ottawa Gee-Gees 66-62 in the other.
The Vikes and Redmen will square off at 8 a.m. Pacific, with the bronze-medal game going at 10:15 a.m. The gold-medal game, broadcast live on The Score, is slated for 12:30 p.m. Pacific.
