The coaches wanted the VIU Mariners to keep moving forward, take no steps back, and that’s what happened.
Vancouver Island University’s men’s basketball team won both its road games on the weekend, hammering the Kwantlen Eagles 115-56 on Friday and then handling the Columbia Bible College Bearcats 113-79 the next day.
“I didn’t feel there was any complacency at all,” said Matt Kuzminski, coach of the M’s men. “I think the guys had a good approach, I thought they played extremely hard pretty much for the entirety of both games. They tried to do all the things we asked.”
Taking on teams lower in the standings, the M’s tried to work on things.
“Our pressure defence, I thought, created a lot of scoring opportunities for us…” Kuzminski said. “And then offensively, we continue to improve moving the ball, sharing the ball – our assist totals are way up, and as a result, we’re getting lots of different guys scoring.”
In Friday’s game, Justin King led the team with 25 points and Jerod Dorby scored 19. Kadeem Stewart added 13 points and Eric D’Andrea contributed 11 points and eight rebounds.
The next night it was King with 23 points and 12 boards and Curtis Wilson scored 14 points.
The Mariners women, meanwhile, beat Kwantlen 56-50 and then beat CBC 65-48.
On Friday, Sienna Pollard scored 19 points and added nine rebounds, with Jamie MacFarlane scoring 13 and Jenna Carver pulling down 14 rebounds.
The next day Amanda Tapia scored 14 points, Pollard had 11 points and 17 boards and Carver had 11 points and nine boards.
GAME ON … VIU’s basketball teams are at home Friday (Feb. 6) and Saturday against the Douglas Royals and Langara Falcons, respectively. Friday’s women’s game is at 6 p.m., with the men’s game at 8 p.m. On Saturday, the women tip off at 1 p.m. with the men to follow at 3 p.m.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com
