Vikes grab Canada West hoops crown

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This article was published 26/02/2024 (870 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was the Canada West final matchup the Winnipeg Wesmen wanted and a revenge game they desperately wanted to win.

The Wesmen had a problem, however.

The No. 1-ranked Victoria Vikes, the country’s most seasoned and talented playoff team, would have the last word.

Sparked by Renoldo Robinson’s 33 points on 12-for-22 shooting, the Vikes rallied to beat Winnipeg 96-91 before a boisterous partisan crowd of 1,300 at Investors Group Athletic Centre Sunday night.

“Something just clicked in me and I had to take over,” said Robinson, who scored 14 points in the second quarter to help pull his team back into the game. “I was feeling myself and had to get started.”

With last season’s 95-80 road loss in the conference final to the Vikes still burned in their memories, the Wesmen got off to a hot start almost no one could have imagined. Sprinting out to a 11-3 lead before Vikes coach Craig Beaucamp called his first timeout, Winnipeg shot 68.4 per cent and hit 4-of-6 three-pointers en route to a 35-19 edge after 10 minutes.

Maranan had 14 of those points in the first 10 minutes, finishing with 34 points and 10 assists, while Malachi Alexander had nine in the opening quarter and totalled 23.

“We wanted this game really bad,” said Maranan. “Obviously they had us last year and we thought we had a good shot this year. We started off really hot but their experience kinda got to us and we let a few possessions slip away from us at the end.”

But by the intermission, the deep and experienced Vikes had worked their way back into the game.

“They just scored on every possession and luckily we scored a little bit there to kinda keep within striking distance,” said Beaucamp. “It was a really great offensive game — I guess that’s the way to look at it when there’s not defence.”

Vikes guard Diego Maffia, the likely U Sports player of the year, had relatively quiet night, scoring nine points in the first half and finishing with 18. He also had three assists.

“People may or may not realize that although Maffia didn’t score the ball, he was a big-time facilitator for them,” said Maranan. “A bunch of skip passes, he was getting in the lane for dump-offs. He was the quarterback of their team tonight and obviously Ronoldo did his thing. They’re a tough team to handle.”

Robinson went on a tear in the third quarter, scoring 14 points including a three-pointer on the buzzer that give the Vikes their first lead of the game,at 70-68.

“We were definitely rattled but finishing that first half, we knew we had it in the bag, we were just down six,” said Robinson. “We always come back from stuff like this.”

Added Beaucamp: “I was kind of more angry than rattled. Because, ‘OK, at some point we’ve gotta get a stop here.’ That’s what we tried to talk about at halftime.”

Robinson has a enviable recent history at IGAC. With Maffia sidelined by injury, he erupted for 46 points in a 103-100 win over Manitoba on Jan. 20.

“It seems to be his gym,” said Beaucamp. “He seems to see it well here. When we needed him, he came up and put us on his shoulders again. I’m really proud of him.”

With the top two teams in Canada West both qualifying for the U Sports national championship, the Wesmen entered the Sunday’s action assured of a second consecutive trip to the big dance, scheduled for March 8-10 in Quebec City.

Surely the underdog tag probably no longer applies to the Wesmen.

“People talk about how last year was a fluke,” said U of W athletic director Dave Crook prior to Sunday’s final. “Well, obviously it’s not a fluke — they’re in the final again against Victoria. They were 15-5 in what they probably considered a disappointing season. They started the season ranked third in the country, right? They were in the top five for the first number of weeks.

“And then they had those couple of losses against Saskatchewan before Christmas and they went into a lull but they fought their way out of it. It’s easy to call to call them overachievers, but they’re not overachievers… They don’t look like pretty polished, big, strong athletes but they play amazing basketball.”

“They’re really good because they’re very resilient and they’re really strong defensively,” added Crook. “(Head coach Mike) Raimbault is an unbelievable coach in terms of their defensive preparation. If you watched that (semifinal) game (Saturday) night against Calgary, how many times did they lose somebody off a ball-screen action? Even when they made switches, they’re just in place. They are so prepared. They know what other teams are doing and that’s one of their strengths.”

Timberwolves 94 Dinos 80

Chris Ross went 7-for-13 from behind the arc and finished with 25 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals to lead 12th-seeded UNBC to victory in the third-place game.

Evgeny Baukin, with 19 points, and Darren Hunter, with 15, also had big outings for the Timberwolves, who upset the fifth-seeded UBC Thunderbirds and the No. 4 Manitoba Bisons before dropping a 80-68 point decision to Victoria in Saturday’s semifinal.

Nate Petrone and Gurshan Sran replied with 26 and 24 points, respectively, for the Dinos, who were the tournament’s No. 2 seed.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca