November 16 - Coming off a weekend sweep of the Brandon Bobcats, the Bisons (3-2) were hoping to continue on a roll as the Victoria Vikes (4-3) came to town on Friday night at the Investors Group Athletic Centre. The Vikes, having just swept Thompson Rivers the weekend before were just as eager to make it a streak.

“At times I thought we did some really good things,” said head coach Pam Danis. “We just weren’t consistent for 40 minutes.”

In a quick opening quarter, it was the Vikes coming out strong. Six straight points from Victoria guard, Ryan Mckay, who had 12 points in the first quarter alone, gave them an early lead that was slowly extended throughout the quarter. Bison captain Melanie Schlichter played a smart game at key moments to keep Manitoba in the game. By the end of the first, The Vikes held a 10-point lead, 23-13.

A steal from Bison guard, Leigh-Anne Legal-young, followed by a long two-pointer from Kayla Klassen opened the second quarter. Despite their best efforts, the Bisons couldn’t close the gap, which continued to increase, emphasized by a devastating field goal from downtown by Victoria guard, Kristen Hughes. The score going into recess was 45-31 in favor of the visiting Victoria Vikes.

At the break, while the Herd was shooting 67 percent from beyond the arc, Victoria’s Hughes was leading all players with 16 points, while Klassen was the top Bison with eight points.

The Vikes opened the second half with a 10-2 run on the Herd, widening the gap to over 20 points. Late in the quarter, a defensive collapse by the Bisons prevented any sort of offensive attack from sticking. Going into the fourth quarter, Victoria had a 68-49 lead.

Victoria was dominating all facets of the game thus far, and the trend continued well into the fourth. Mckay, who was all but absent in the second frame, stepped up her game in the last quarter, leading the Vikes to the 79-60 victory.

Mckay once again led all players finishing the game with 27 points and five assists for the Vikings, while the Bisons’ Klassen was close behind with 21 points.

“If we don’t follow the game plan, we’re just nonexsistent,” said Danis after the game. “We thought we had a pretty good idea of what Victoria would do, McKay scored 27 on us, and that wasn’t a surprise.”

“We didn’t put pressure on their players,” said Danis.

The Bisons will play again tomorrow night, November 17, against the UBC Thunderbirds at the Investors Group Athletic Centre. The Birds will be a tough challenge for the Herd, having only lost once in six conference games. The game starts at 6:15pm.

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