Ben Chessor
The Navigator
The VIU Mariners’ women’s basketball team is one game away from a perfect season. The Mariners wrapped up the home portion of their PacWest regular season schedule on February 15 and only have one game left in the regular season on Friday, February 21 against the Camosun Chargers. The Mariners’ record is a sparkling 20-0.
The Mariners kicked off their final home stand of the season on Friday, February 7 against the Capilano Blues. The Blues played the Mariners tough and managed to keep the game close in the early going. At halftime, the Mariners held a slim 37-31 lead. But after halftime, the Mariners continued their strong play and started to pull away on the scoreboard. By the time the final buzzer sounded, the Mariners had a 69-53 victory.
The Mariners were back in action the next day against Quest University. Quest has come closer to defeating the Mariners than any other team in the PacWest. The first two meetings between these two teams went down to the wire, with the Mariners picking up narrow victories in both meetings. The first quarter was tightly contested between the two teams, with the Mariners leading 11-8 after the first. In the second quarter, the Mariners started to pull away, opening up a 32-22 lead at halftime. At the end of the third quarter, the Mariners’ stretched their lead to 16 points, leading 57-41 heading into the fourth quarter. In the fourth, Quest cut the Mariners lead down to ten points, but couldn’t get any closer as the Mariners picked up a 70-58 victory.
The Mariners kicked off their last home weekend of the regular season with a game against the Langara Falcons. The Mariners took an early lead in this one and held a 20-14 lead after the first quarter. But in the second quarter, the Mariners started to pull away. VIU outscored Langara in the second half 23-4 to open up a 43-18 lead at halftime. The Mariners continued to run away with the game in the second half, winning easily by a final score of 71-41 victory.
The Mariners took to their home court for the final time this season on February 15 for a game against the Douglas College Royals. Much like they’ve done all season, the Mariners took the lead early in the game, and they held a five point lead heading into halftime. But in the third quarter, the Mariners widened their lead to 20 points, leading 63-43 after the third. The Mariners held on in the fourth quarter and picked up the 73-60 victory. With the win, the women finish their home schedule with a record of 11-0.
The PacWest Provincial championships are scheduled for February 27-March 1 and will be held at Douglas College. The women have a chance to finish the regular season with a perfect 21-0 record if they can win their final game on February 21 at 6pm in Victoria against Camosun. For more information on the Mariners, including their results, visit mariners.viu.ca.