No more trial runs. No more experimenting. And certainly no more opponents with 2-and-20 records. It's time to start growing the beards and dusting off the towels.
The Vikes men's and women's hoops teams dimmed the lights on the 2008-09 regular season this past weekend. In the final two contests of the season, a couple of Vikes stars shone very bright and gave the McKinnon faithful fans tons of optimism heading into the second season.
The four-for-four Vikes weekend was led by a pair of career performances by Mitch Gudgeon and Kayla DykMVPstra (sorry for the typo). Their effort on the Fri and Sat night was a perfect way to wrap up their terrific regular seasons, and for Gudgeon, a Hollywood scripted finish to cap off a hallmark five years of basketball at McKinnon Gym.
The long and grueling quest for national glory will begin next week for both Vikes teams, with the Women hosting the defending CIS National Champion UBC Thunderbirds in the opening round of the best-of-three PAC-D playoffs. The men got no love from Winnipeg (And we thought Cyril had connections in that city) so they will be forced to travel to the not so friendly confines of David E. Earnson Gym to take on their old friend Jacob Doerksen and the rest of the Trinity Western Spartans. However, before we look forward to the opening round of the playoffs, lets look back at what transpired this past weekend. The Horn will have a full playoff hoops preview in the upcoming days!
The Women
You know whats scary. Like really scary. Terrifyingly scary. The fact that Kayla Dykstra has two more years of eligibility. She can't possibly dominate a league more than she dominated the Canada West in 2008-09. Nobody in the conference even came close to stopping her this season. If she does not win the leagues MVP award it will be the biggest injustice in voting since George Bush was re-elected President back in 2004.
This past weekend Dykstra put an explanation mark on her record setting year. Friday night she realized a career high in scoring when she poured in 33 points to go along with 13 boards in the Vikes 78-52 victory over UFV. The next night, another personal career high, as she set a new mark in rebounds by grabbing 23 in the Vikes 65-56 win over TRU. She also locked up the Canada West scoring title with her fifth straight 20-plus effort, netting 21 points on 8-17 shooting. Ohh ya I almost forgot, Saturday night's monster game saw her end up just two blocks shy of recording her first ever triple-double.
Lets just take a quick look at her year:
- 18.6 points-per-game (1st in the Canada West and the second straight year that a Vike captured the scoring title (Ryan McKay last season 18.3)
- 11.2 rebounds-per-game (1st in the Canada West)
- 61% field goal percentage (1st in the Canada West)
- 1.4 blocks-per-game (6th in the Canada West)
The Men
Talk about going out in style. Seniors Mitch Gudgeon and Tyler Hass likely played their last games on Shields Court on the weekend. And if it is their last game, they certainly left a lasting mark. Just ask the rims.
Gudgeon, obviously upset that the Horn labeled him as the grinder and Hass as the high-flyer, threw down three You Tube bound dunks in Saturday's victory against a very over matched TRU team. The Horn will post these dunks in the coming days but if you weren't there to see them in person you sure missed out on some huge crams by #33. The best one coming in the second quarter when the big man received a Ryan MacKinnon pass at full speed and went ride down broadway before cramming all over three unsuspecting WolfPack defenders, (although i'm not sure defender is the best word to describe their effort on that play, or on the night for that matter). Just Nastyness from Gudge!
This dunking display came after his huge Friday night performance where he set a new career high in rebounds, grabbing 20 in the Vikes victory over the Fraser Valley Cascades. That night also included a 21 point effort on the offensive end, giving him his first 20-20 performance of his career. Like i said, a great way to finish.
A send off right up there with Wayne Gretzky's final waltz around MSG and Seinfelds final hour on TV.
Well not quite, but close...sorta.....well not really, but you see what i am getting at.
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