By Howard Tsumura
VANCOUVER — When you perform within basketball’s most sacred space, you earn the most special moniker of having played like you were ‘unconscious’.
On its own, hitting 6-of-8 three-pointers in a game doesn’t necessarily qualify as such, yet it certainly makes a case for itself when so early in your university career, just weeks past your 18th birthday, you go on the road and put on just such a performance, in the process helping lead your unranked team past its No. 4 nationally-ranked hosts.
And besides, when you ask Victoria point guard Avery Geddes about some of those triples she drained as her Vikes upset the UBC Thunderbirds 66-53 at War Memorial Gymnasium last Friday, it seems her memory is, clearly and quite hilariously, still coming out of that zone.
“There was one that was really late in the shot clock,” she told Varsity Letters over the phone Sunday evening from the provincial capital. “It was pretty unexpected that it went in, but I was just in rhythm. And you know… I was feeling it.”
All true, except Geddes didn’t just hit one three-pointer in the second before shot-clock buzzer expired. She in fact hit three of them, the final one off a post kick-out from her old high school teammate at St. Michaels University School, Makena Anderson, which reached its highest arc as the buzzer sounded, sinking through with 5:20 remaining to put the Vikes on top 63-38.
Of course Geddes’ game-high 24-point performance came in concert with a special team dynamic head coach Carrie Watts has created with the Vikes.
On one end, two fifth-year forwards, among the best scoring and rebounding front-court players in the country in Mimi Sigue (St. Albert, Alta.) and Abigail Becker (Parksville-Ballenas) at one end of the spectrum.
And at the other, the youth of Victoria-produced freshmen Geddes and Eden Henderson (3-3 threes, nine points) (Oak Bay), as well as second-year guard Natalie Allison (3-for-9 threes, 11 points), the Calgary native who last season ran the point as a freshman and this season has been teammed with Geddes in a kind of present-day homage to the 1980s Detroit Pistons’ backcourt of Isaiah Thomas and Joe Dumars.
The three aforementioned guards, while not wracking up huge assists totals on the night, shot a combined 12-for-20 (60 per cent) from three and combined to score 44 of the teams 66 points.
Break down all six of Geddes’ made triples, however, and you see how much the ball moves inside out and through the hands of its guard and its forwards.
On Friday, Sigue, especially, was instrumental in three of Geddes’ triples, twice with post kick outs and once setting a massive screen at the top of the arc to give her teammate a clean look from the top of the key.
Not only that, Sigue finished with nine points and a game-high 17 rebounds, including 10 off the offensive glass, while Becker had nine and Anderson another six.
“I would say that the shots that I had were because of my teammates,” Geddes stated. “They would draw two and I would have, pretty much, open, in-rhythm threes. They really set me up well.”
UBC was able to put the loss behind them the way good teams are supposed to, topping visiting UBC Okanagan 70-51 on Saturday night behind a dominant 30-point, nine-rebound performance from fifth-year guard Olivia Weekes.
And while it may have surprised many that Geddes went out and did what she did so early in university career, it bears mentioning that UBC head coach Dave Taylor spoke to Varsity Letters in advance of Friday’s game and specifically detailed how the young point guard with the deep-rooted Vikes tradition flowing through her veins was hardly your garden-variety 18-year-old.
“Well, I am having PTSD, I think, because I remember losing in the (CIAU) nationals when Lindsay Brooke won a national title years ago and I was an assistant coach (at Regina)” Taylor said. “Now I’m dealing with her daughter and she is good. Like, she is not a rookie point guard.”
THE BIGGER THE MOMENT…
Eight months ago, in the final high school game of her career with SMUS, of course the alma mater of Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame point guard and fellow Victoria high schooler Steve Nash, it turns out that Avery Geddes was actually giving us all a sneak peak.
Over the earlier stages of the 2025 B.C. senior girls Double-A championship game she knocked down four triples, eventually finishing with 25 points en route to being named tournament MVP as her Blue Jags defeated Surrey’s Holy Cross Crusaders 62-54 at the Langley Events Centre.
Afterwards, her mom and high school coach Brooke said “You saw today, she is just so calm, and that is such an asset in a big game. Nothing rattles her.”
Fast forward eight months and a week, and her new coach, UVic’s Watts was pretty much saying the same thing.
“She plays above her years,” Watts said. “She isn’t fazed by the big moments and has so much confidence and belief in herself. She can let the bad plays go and get on the next one. She was just outstanding tonight. Outstanding.”
Yet a large reason it has been able to begin to flourish as early as it has, is that when you put it all under a microscope, you can’t deny the existence of what is an ideal infrastructure for a young and assured talent to come in and play heavy minutes. And that;’s because there is a safety net in place with two second-chance generators/mentors like Becker and Sigue.
It seems an eco-system working in harmony, even if those kinds of shooting nights are not always going to happen.
“We haven’t had some great shooting nights,” admitted Watts, “(but) I think we’ve got some great shooters and we were able to get the three-point ball going (13-of-23) a little bit more today.”
As the Vikes prepare to host a Prairie Division foe — the Regina Cougars come to CARSA for a pair Friday (6 p.m.) and Saturday (5 p.m.) — its win over UBC is sure to serve as a benchmark.
“Our veterans were veterans,” said Watts. “Our seniors stepped up and our rookies weren’t fazed by the moment. Mimi and Abby have kind of been through it all. They’ve been together so long, and they’ve got just such great chemistry. Mimi just brings so much will to win and her compete level is so high. I think the rookies see how much (Sigue and Becker) want to win and want to do it for both of them.”
Geddes enters play this week shooting 38.6 per cent from three-point range in conference play, the best in the Canada West and third-best nationally.
Among U Sports rookies, she is ranked in nine different Top 10 categories, including tops in three-point percentage and goals made. She also second in assists at just north of four per game, and she’s third in scoring at 14.0 ppg.
But ask her what is most meaningful to her, and like the true point guard she is, it’s being able to make her teammates better.
“I’m not going to shoot it all that well every game, but teams will probably start keying in on it,” she began. “I like creating for people and I think that’s going to be super important down the stretch.”
Still, if there are more nights when her performances flow into that ‘unconscious’ state we all saw Friday, these next five seasons are going to be filled with appointment viewing.
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