Top-ranked Vikes keep season alive with fourth-quarter burst
Diego Maffia put the M in “mercurial” Saturday night in a near-packed CARSA Gym, missing his first nine shots before some sublime finishing as the University of Victoria Vikes defeated the upset-minded Regina Cougars 88-70 in a Canada West men’s basketball playoff quarter-final that was closer than the scoreboard indicated.
It was downright tense until the Vikes, ranked No. 1 in Canada, pulled away in the fourth quarter to advance to host the arch-rival UBC Thunderbirds in a conference playoff semifinal Friday night on Ken and Kathy Shields Court in CARSA.
“We stayed composed and never stopped playing,” said Maffia, the Canada West scoring champion and likely MVP.
“I am never going to stop shooting. We knew the shots would eventually fall.”
It was the more unheralded Sergio Pereira and Jaden Touchie who came through with some gutty and clutch play to keep UVic in the game until Maffia found his form late to finish with 30 points.
Elias Ralph added 20 points. Carter Millar was a monster for Regina with 31 points.
Regina took a 15-14 lead after the first quarter and led 28-23 midway through the second quarter before the first half ended 33-33.
The Cougars, the No. 8 Canada West seed, rattled off the first eight points of the second half to lead 41-33 to rachet the tension even more. The Vikes fought back to lead 55-52 to end the third quarter on a Maffia three-pointer at the buzzer.
“Regina is a quality opponent with several seniors who did not want their careers to end and they played their butts off,” said UVic head coach Craig Beaucamp. Some gritty defence turned the tide for UVic.
“It was a close-fought game,” said Vikes senior forward Dominick Oliveri.
“The shots were not falling for us early on but we stayed the course.
“We have enough good scorers that we had confidence the shots would fall.”
They did and the upset of the season was avoided as the Vikes continued their march toward the dream of a first national title since Olympian Eric Hinrichsen led UVic to the 1997 Canadian championship.