The Martlet

It was a bittersweet week in men’s basketball. The Vikes beat SFU 77-67 on Saturday, Feb. 13, their last regular season game, only to lose out the last spot in the CanWest playoffs.

The Vikes went into the final game knowing that they had to win and needed some help to clinch a spot in the playoffs. University of B.C. needed to beat Trinity Western, and Calgary needed to beat Lethbridge.

UBC pulled through, but Calgary fell in stunning 58-56 upset to Lethbridge. With Lethbridge and UVic tied both in record and on tie-breakers, the final spot in the post-season was decided by a vote amongst coaches of non-playoff teams. On this technicality, after winning the vote, the Pronghorns found themselves in the wild card spot, the fifth team from the Prairie Division to make the playoffs.

“We’ll take it for what it is, we’re pumped about the win ... we did what we could,” said Vikes graduating guard Cyril Indome in the wake of Saturday’s game.

The Vikes did close the season on a high note, sending off Indome with a victory. Indome chalked the win up to “a good team effort.”

“We pride ourselves on doing the little things and today I think we did the little things, like going after loose balls, and winning most of those battles,” said Indome.

Indome will be greatly missed, as he is the Vikes leading three-point shooter and among the top three scorers on the team.

“I have a lot of great memories at McKinnon Gym and it was nice that all the guys came out and did what they could,” he said.

Vikes’ guard Ryan MacKinnon lead all scorers with 21 points and two three-pointers in the third quarter. Jeff Cullen was the next high scorer for the Vikes, bringing in 14 points and handing out a season high of eight assists. And 6’8 Mike Berg stood out, starting the game of with six of UVic’s 19 points in the first quarter, finishing the game with 10.

Leading the Clan was Eric Burrell with 17 points followed by Matt Kuzminski and Sean Burke with 11 points each. Burrell got the SFU fans going in the second quarter with a dunk, but the second half was all Vikes.

“SFU’s a very, very good team,” said Indome, “but there was a bit more on the line for us than for them.”

The Clan had already clinched a playoff berth and will host a playoff series the weekend of Feb. 26. The Vikes will stay home from the playoffs for the first time since 2002-03 and finish the season with a 10-11 record, 9-9 in conference play.