Vancouver Island University’s basketball teams get to play in provincial championships in their home gym, and they have a week to handle the transition to playoff mode.
VIU’s men’s and women’s hoops teams closed out the PacWest regular season this past weekend in Victoria against the Camosun Chargers.
The M’s men (17-1) won Friday and Saturday by scores of 92-91 and 87-55, while the Mariners women (13-5) were 65-61 winners on Friday but lost their finale 75-57 the following afternoon.
VIU men’s basketball coach Matt Kuzminski said his team wasn’t at the top of its game on Friday and had to rely on its high-scoring ways, but he was happier with Saturday’s performance.
“It makes us so much tougher to play against when our defence is locked in and that was the case on Saturday,” he said.
The coach said in in recent weeks, his team has just tried to get healthy and hone its game.
“There hasn’t been a need to try anything new,” Kuzminski said. “It’s been, all right, can we do what we want to do well? Can we do the things we want to execute well and can we get the guys who haven’t been involved with it back into the rhythm?”
M’s star Usama Zaid scored 48 points in Friday’s game, with Jerod Dorby adding 14. On Saturday, Zaid scored 25 points – 23 in the first half – to go with six steals, and Dorby scored 16 points.
Kaitlyn LaFontaine scored 16 points on Friday. Emily Clarke had 14 points and 15 rebounds on Saturday and Juliet King scored 13 points to go with nine boards in that one.
GAME ON … PacWest men’s and women’s basketball championships will be held March 1-3 in the Vancouver Island University gym.
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