Victoria had four players hit double-digits in scoring as the Vikes held on to beat Trinity Western 73-65 Friday at the Langley Events Centre.
Hayden Lejuene had a double-double, with 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Jaden Touchie added 12 points, Justin McChesney had 10 points and eight boards, and Diego Maffia had 11 points.
The Spartans Jack Nadelhoffer (Tigard, Ore.) had a double-double, with 16 points and 11 rebounds, while Isaiah Reimer (Abbotsford, B.C.) had 15 points and Daniel Stead (Langley) added 12 points.
The win sees the playoff-bound Vikes improve to 14-5, while the loss drops TWU to 0-19.
TWU opened the game with a 10-4 run, but the Vikes responded with the next eight points to finish the quarter ahead 12-10.
The second quarter was all Vikes, as they outscored TWU 28-16, including a barrage of scoring from beyond the arc that saw Victoria go five for seven from 3-point range. Coupled with TWU’s one for seven from distance, Victoria held a 14-point lead, 40-26, at halftime. TWU finished the half shooting two for 15 from outside, while the Vikes shot seven for 15 from 3-point land.
The Spartans came out firing in the third quarter, putting up 25 points in the frame to nearly duplicate their entire total from the first half, while holding Victoria to just 12 points. Trailing 46-29, the Spartans went on a 14-0 run, led by six points from Reimer, to close the Vikes lead to three points. A lay-up from Nadelhoffer put the Spartans up 51-50, but Victoria’s Lejeune hit a jumper late to send the teams into the fourth quarter with the visitors ahead 52-51.
The Vikes opened the fourth quarter with a 7-2 run that gave a lead to the visitors they wouldn’t relinquish. The Spartans hung around down the stretch, but never got closer than five points (70-65).
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Trevor Pridie – TWU Head Coach
“The guys battled. I’m proud of the guys. There is no knock on effort. We just had a first half where we missed a lot of shots. We had a couple of droughts that hurt us and that came back to bite us. We were pressing and pushing the ball and doing that with seven guys and the gas kind of runs out a bit. It’s tough with seven guys and it’s kind of been that way for the last few weeks. I’m not mad at the guys. There is no effort issues. There was just some composure stuff down the stretch that hurt us. We’ll work on that and we’ll get better in these situations. I thought we were good defensively. We threw a bunch of looks at them and threw them out of rhythm a bit.”
