For the first time in five seasons, the University of Victoria Vikes men's basketball team will open the ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ West playoffs on the road.
In the previous four campaigns, the Vikes have finished first or second in the Pacific Division and have hosted the best-of-three semifinals.
But even after posting a 17-6 record and being ranked No. 7 in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½, the Vikes will have to take their show on the road to Langley and face the Trinity Western Spartans. The first two games are tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m. If a third game is necessary, it will go at 8 p.m. on Saturday. The games are available on the Internet at http://www.twu.ca/athletics/spartan/swr/
"I honestly didn't think that with a 17-6 record that we would have to open the playoffs on the road,'' said Vikes' coach Craig Beaucamp. "But give a lot credit to Trinity Western. The Spartans had some big wins in the second half of the season, including on the road against UBC, Calgary and us.''
Led by former Vikes' star Jacob Deerskin, the Spartans won 14 of their last 15 games to also finish the season at 17-6 and be ranked No. 10. Trinity Western was awarded home court after winning the season series 2-1. So after this weekend, one of the top 10 teams in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ will be on the sidelines.
"I'm confident that our team will find ways to score and we just have to do a better job of defending and rebounding against Trinity Western. We will also try to disrupt their offence with some full-court pressure.''
The Vikes were excellent on road this year, posting a 9-2 record. Their only losses came at UBC and Trinity Western.
"We have played some of our best basketball on the road this year,'' said Beaucamp. "We are probably going into this series as a bit of an underdog and there will be less pressure on us.''
One of the keys for the Vikes will be trying to slow down Doerksen, who was third in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ West scoring with 20.8 points per game and first in rebounding (10.7 per game). Doerksen has a strong supporting cast with the likes of Brian Banman, Jamie Vaughan and Louis Hurd.
"Jacob [Doerksen] will find a way to get his points,'' said Beaucamp. "We just have to make sure that we have a body on him and not give him anything easy.''
The Vikes will be relying heavily on fifth-year players Mitch Gudgeon and Tyler Hass. Gudgeon led the team in scoring (15.6) and rebounding (10.1) while Hass was next at 13.7 and 5.6.
"The atmosphere at Trinity Western is awesome,'' said Hass. "It is a lot of fun to play in their gym. Our focus will be on trying to make it more difficult for them to score. If we can keep the score low, we may frustrate Jacob and the rest of their team.''
The 40-year-old David E. Enarson Gym at Langley will close its doors after this season. The Spartans were 9-2 at home this year.
The Vikes are masters at playing defence, allowing teams only 65.5 points per game. For the fifth consecutive year, the Vikes were the best in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ West at stopping other teams from scoring.
"For us to be successful at Langley, we have to keep doing what we do best and that is play defence,'' said second-year forward Ryan MacKinnon. "We don't have anything special planned for stopping Jacob. We know that he will play well and we just have to make his shots are tough. If Jacob is scoring, we have to make sure no one else is lighting it up.''
The only other time the Vikes played the Spartans was 2006 and UVic won that series 2-1 and then came within one game of capturing the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship.
In the other Pacific Division semifinal, the Simon Fraser Clan will be travelling to meet the first-place UBC Thunderbirds.
