The No. 10-ranked Victoria Vikes withstood a late rally from the Regina Cougars to take a 72-63 win in both teams' Canada West opener on Friday night in Victoria.
 
The Cougars trailed by 13 at one point in the third quarter, but hung around and cut the deficit all the way to four after a Travis Sylvestre bucket with three minutes to go capped a 7-1 run for the U of R. But that was as close as the Cougars would get, as Victoria scored the next 10 points to push the lead to double digits and put the game out of reach.
 
Chris McLaughlin had a big game for Victoria (1-0), finishing with 21 points and 11 rebounds to lead all players in both categories and register the only double-double of the contest. Marcus Tibbs added 17 points for the Vikes, while Patrick Pilato scored 11 and Mack Roth added 10 as four of the home team's five starters hit double figures in scoring.
 
The Cougars (0-1) were led by Alex Igual (pictured), who had a team-high 15 points and tied Jonathan Tull for the team lead with seven rebounds. Tull also scored 14 for the U of R, while Sylvestre finished with 13 points. Will Tallman and Brandon Tull rounded out the starting five for the Cougars, with post Michael Hudson and guard Mike Malecha both earning plenty of playing time off the bench.
 
Victoria led by three points after the opening quarter, but opened the second on an 11-2 run to build up its first double-digit lead of the game. The Vikes had a 32-23 advantage at the break and pushed the lead to 13 early in the third after holding the Cougars scoreless for the first three minutes of the second half.  
 
The two teams will finish off the weekend set on Saturday (7 p.m. PDT) at McKinnon Gymnasium on the UVic campus.