There was plenty to report on during a busy sports Saturday for Victoria teams and athletes.
The question is, where to start?
Well, why not with a Brier and world champion as Blake MacDonald joined his buddy Jamie King for the World Curling Tour’s Westin Bear Mountain Shootout that began Friday at Juan de Fuca Rec Centre and continues until Sunday.
MacDonald won a national and world title in 2010 as Kevin Koe’s third on the Edmonton Saville Centre rink that also included second Carter Rycroft and lead Nolan Thiessen. King was the alternate on that team that won the Brier in Halifax and the world title in Italy.
MacDonald left that team this season, retiring from competitive curling, but joined King, his usual lead Todd Brick and another friend, Wade Johnston, at second for this Victoria event that carries a $10,300 purse for the men and $10,000 purse for the women.
What makes curling so compelling for me is how honest and open curlers are.
MacDonald, who has played all of two games this season, filling in as a spare back home in St. Albert (just northwest of Edmonton), took the weekend as a fun event. King tossed him into the fire, throwing final stones while King called the games.
“I told Jamie he should be throwing the last ones, but he refused to, so that’s all right. It’s good to just get out and hang around with the guys,” MacDonald said after losing the ‘A’ qualifier Saturday before bouncing back to claim a ‘B’ spot.
“For how hard we’ve partied this weekend, it’s probably the only spiel I’ll be able to afford to do this year,” he added, with a chuckle.
King, himself, is one of the good guys in curling, always willing to talk and always carrying a smile.
“That’s the best way to do it,” he said of throwing MacDonald in as last-rock thrower. “That way he can find his dead weight.”
The team will be back in action this morning at 9 a.m. in the quarter-finals. The women will also be on the ice, with semifinals for both at noon and the championship games at 3 p.m.
VIKES RULE
Meanwhile, the Victoria Vikes men and women both came up with wins on the hardwood Saturday night.
The women easily dismantling Brandon 109-33 with the men using an 11-0 run late in the third quarter to defeat the Bobcats 87-76.
Allison Mulock nailed six three-pointers coming off the bench for the women.
“Ally’s been working extremely hard in individuals, so today’s performance doesn’t surprise me,” said Vikes head coach Rich Chambers. “She’s been putting time in the gym and she was fully deserving of the shots she made tonight because she’s worked so hard in September, October and early November.”
Up 23-7 after one quarter and 56-15 at the half, it wasn’t exactly an easy game to coach for Chambers.
“It’s sometimes tough because you don’t want to embarrass the other team, right,” he admitted. “But you don’t want to stop playing as well. I thought they just played hard.
“We didn’t press, but I don’t want them to not shoot the ball when they’re open and not play,” he said of cracking the 100-point plateau, rarely seen in women’s CIS basketball. “I think they did a great job playing as hard as they could.”
GRIZZ CHIP IN
At the CJHL Prospects Game, Victoria Grizzlies reps, Braxton Bilous and Wade Murphy, both chipped in to lead the Can West team to a 4-3 overtime win over Can East in the first of two meetings in Langley.
Bilous had a goal and an assist while Murphy, who leads the BCHL in points, had two assists.
Game 2 goes Sunday, as does the final of the World Jr. A Challenge that includes Grizzlies centreman Wesley Myron on the Canada West team that faces Canada East in the championship game in Langley.
