CARLETON 87 VIKES 63
After a dreadful first half against the best university men's basketball team in sa国际传媒, the University of Victoria Vikes coach Craig Beaucamp challenged his team to do better. They did, but it wasn't nearly enough as the defending Canadian Interuniversity Sport champion Carleton Ravens clipped the Vikes 87-63 on Saturday at McKinnon Gym at the Guy Vetrie Memorial tournament.
"As crazy as it might sound, I'm hopeful that this game will be a turning point for our team," said Beau-camp. "In the first half, we played poorly and we were outclassed by a great team. It was a wake-up call for our guys and they responded with a better effort in the second half."
The Ravens started the game on a 7-0 run and never looked back. Carleton led by as many as 37 points in the third quarter. The Vikes were held to just four points in the second quarter and trailed 57-23 at the half.
"We saw what the best in sa国际传媒 looks like and now we have to build off a game like that. Our goal was to win the second half and we did 40-30."
Carleton's lightning-fast guard Philip Scrubb had 25 points while Thomas Scrubb added 18 and Dan Penner 12.
The Ravens were outstanding shooting the ball, nailing 10 three-point shots from beyond the arc and also hitting 15 of 16 free-throw attempts.
Michael Acheampong and Vijay Dhillon each had 13 points for the Vikes. All of Dhillon's points came in the fourth quarter.
"In the second quarter, it was more about our offence than our defence," said Dhillon. "On offence, we weren't playing as a team and we dug ourselves into a deep hole. Carleton also started knocking down threes and we were in trouble.
"We know that Carleton has a very good team and we were close to them for three quarters last year in Ottawa. We played better in the second half and the Ravens did keep playing most of their starters. The Ravens probably played defence a little less aggressive in the second half when they had the big lead."
In the opener, the Alberta Golden Bears recovered from a slow start to defeat the Lethbridge Pronghorns 77-75.
Lethbridge held a 17-9 first-quarter lead and 46-33 at the half before the Bears outscored the Pronghorns 44-29 during the second half.
Jordan Baker led the Bears with 16 points and nine rebounds. Kenneth Otieno added 15 points while Rob Dewar chipped in 13.
Lethbridge's Chaz Johnson was the game's top scorer with 20 while Niko Kovac contributed 15.
The tournament wraps up today with games at noon (Carleton vs. Lethbridge) and 2 p.m. (the Vikes vs. Alberta).
The Vikes' final exhibition game is Wednesday at McKinnon Gym against Lakehead University. Game time is 7 p.m.
UVic opens the sa国际传媒 West regular season on Nov. 2-3 at home against the UBC-Okanagan Heat. [email protected]
