Catch up with the men’s and women’s varsity teams as they storm into 2025
Photo by Michael Ezigna courtesy of University of Victoria.
The Vikes women’s basketball team would love to kick off 2025 by replicating the success they had in the second half of last season, when they won ten of their final fourteen games following the Christmas break. Their stunning turnaround allowed them to qualify for the Canada West Championships where they defeated the second-seeded University of British Columbia (UBC), before eventually losing the bronze medal game to the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV).
This year’s team has endured a relatively slow start to the year. During pre-regular season play in October, the Vikes lost all five of their games at the Calgary Cup and UVic Invitational. For the Vikes, those games, however, thankfully don’t count toward the standings which seed the top 12 western conference teams into the Canada West Championships, beginning in late February.
The Vikes are now 4-4 in conference play heading into the new year, after wrapping up 2024 with two solid outings against UFV, the number two ranked team in the division. The Vikes upset UFV at home winning 71-67, before narrowly losing to them the following night by four points.
Fourth year centre Abigail Becker from Parksville currently leads the team in points, rebounds, and blocks per game, and will be central to how the remainder of the team’s season unfolds. The Vikes also experienced a boost with the return of fourth year guard Tana Pankratz, who made her season debut Nov. 15 after missing the first several games because of an injury. In the final two games before the break, Pankratz made a combined six three-pointers against UFV, while averaging 17.5 points and 7.5 rebounds.
The second half of the Vikes season starts with two home games against Trinity Western University (TWU) Jan. 10 and 11. With TWU sitting just one win ahead of UVic in the Canada West BC division, the games’ results will have massive standings implications. Though the two teams have yet to play each other this season, TWU will be entering CARSA on the heels of a three-game win streak. Following the TWU matchup, the Vikes head on the road for two games before returning to CARSA for a matchup against first place UBC on Jan. 23.
The Vikes men’s basketball team will also play TWU Jan. 10 and 11, following the Vikes women’s game. It’s been a sparkling start to the 2024/25 season for the men’s team, who remarkably have yet to lose a single game and are ranked number one in the country.
Last season, after winning gold at the Canada West Championships, the Vikes finished sixth at the U Sports Final 8, hosted by Université Laval. Led this season by new head coach Murphy Burnatowski, the team is trending toward making an even bigger splash at nationals this time around.
The Vikes are currently the highest scoring team in the nation, thanks in large part to fourth year guard Diego Maffia’s 21.8 points per game average. Earlier this season, Maffia made history when he passed Spencer McKay’s scoring record of 1 657 points — a standing school record since 1991. The Vikes have also received clutch scoring off the bench from Montreal–born guard Renoldo Robinson, who is averaging 14.1 points per game despite not yet starting a game for the Vikes.
On paper, the Vikes should be able to easily handle TWU on Jan. 10 and 11 coming out of the break. TWU sits at fourth in the division, with a record of 4-5 that includes a 30-point loss to the Vikes on Halloween night. The Jan. 23 home matchup against perennial rival UBC, however, will be the must watch game for Vikes fans early on in the second half of the season. UBC currently sits second in the division after dropping two games to the Vikes earlier this season.
Tickets for all Vikes’ basketball games can be purchased here: vikestickets.universitytickets.com.
