CALGARY - The Central Division pennant is theirs, but a home loss to the Trinity Western Spartans last Saturday night left a bad taste in the Calgary Dinos' mouths - but the Pacific Ocean could be just what the Dinos need to wash that taste away as they visit Victoria and UBC in a pair of key weekend tilts.
Though Saturday's game against UBC will be the first rematch of the 2008 conference semi-final, where the T-Birds handed the Dinos their first home loss of last season and knocked Calgary out of the national tournament - oh, and it'll be the battle for the best overall record in the conference this year - UBC has all but clinched the Pacific crown, and there will be much more on the line for the Vikes Friday night in Victoria. It was a Henry Bekkering buzzer-beater that gave Calgary a season-opening victory over Victoria last year, and the Vikes are deadlocked in the battle for home court advantage in the Pacific Division playoffs.
FRIDAY, JAN. 30: Dinos vs. Victoria Vikes, 9 p.m. MT, McKinnon Gym
Locked in a fierce battle for second place in the Pacific Division, the UVic Vikes men's basketball returns to Shields Court where they can ill afford to drop any of their four remaining contests. This weekend the Vikes dreams of hosting a playoff series will be put on the line when they host the Calgary Dinos and Lethbridge Pronghorns
VICTORIA VIKES (14-5)
A six hour bus trip to Kamloops couldn't slow down the Vikes this past weekend, as the No. 6 ranked team in the CIS made it 7 wins in their past 8 games by taking two from Thompson Rivers. Yet it wasn't all good news for the Vikes, as they caught word that their division rival Trinity Western Spartans had pulled off the huge upset victory in Calgary. The Spartans and Vikes now hold identical 14-5 records and sit tied for second in the Pac Division, however the Spartans own the tiebreaker advantage. The senior duo of Mitch Gudgeon and Tyler Hass continue to lead the Vikes by example, sitting one-two on the Vikes in both points and rebounds. Gudgeon who led all scorers on Saturday with a 23 point-effort is averaging 14.5 p/g to go along with 9.5 'boards-per-game, while Hass used a career high 27 point performance on Friday night to boost his points-per-game average to 14.1.
CALGARY DINOS (15-3)
The class of the Central Division heads over the Rockies, motivated to show that their home loss to the Spartans last weekend was an anomaly. The CIS No. 4 ranked Dinos will get the perfect opportunity to do so when they face the other two Pacific Division powerhouses in the Vikes and UBC Thunderbirds. The Dinos boast a balanced bite to their game, sitting third in the conference in both total offence (83.2 points-per-game) and defence (68.0 ppg). However, where they truly shine is on the glass, as they sit first in the conference in rebounding with a plus 7.2 rebounding margin. Fans at McKinnon Gym can be forgiven if they are seeing double on Friday, as the Dinos brothers duo of Henry and Ross Bekkering are both averaging double figures in points, with 18.2 p/g and 15.4 p/g respectively.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
The two storied basketball programs have had their fair share of classic encounters over the past few decades and last years showdown in Calgary was no exception. With only seconds left on the clock the Dinos Henry Bekkering nailed an eight-foot turnaround buzzer-beater to give his side the last-second 64-62 victory.
SATURDAY, JAN. 31: Dinos vs. UBC Thunderbirds, 9 p.m. MT, War Memorial Gym
The UBC Thunderbirds (17-2) magic number is down to one.
A single victory by the Thunderbirds over their final four games would give them the top seed in the Pacific Division and an inside track at hosting the Canada West Men's Basketball Final Four. This weekend the T-Birds have a pair of opportunities to get that win as they play host to the Lethbridge Pronghorns (4-14) and Calgary Dinos (15-3).
The marquee match-up will be Saturday night as the T-Birds and Dinos, arguably the two best teams in the conference, square off to settle the battle atop the CW standings. All season the two conference powerhouses have gone back and forth atop the standings but the T-Birds can clinch the best record in the league with a win this Saturday after the Dinos were upended by the streaking TWU Spartans (14-5) at home last weekend.
UBC currently leads TWU and Victoria in the race for first in the Pac-D, with the winner holding home court advantage through out the divisional playoffs. The winner of the Pacific Division finals also earns the right to host the CW Final Four. If the T-Birds manage to lock up first in the regular season, they would host the CW Final Four if they survived the divisional playoffs.
Calgary, on the other hand, has long since locked up first in the Central Division, with Alberta (10-8) their closest rival. The Dinos get a bye in the first round of the divisional playoffs as the top seed before hosting the winner of the Alberta-Saskatchewan/Lethbridge series.
UBC THUNDERBIRDS (17-2)
The Thunderbirds swept aside the Fraser Valley Cascades last weekend (88-65 and 86-67). Josh Whyte had a near perfect first half (8-for-8 from the field, 1-of-2 from the line) in Friday's 23-point victory and finished the contest with a game-high 20 points and five assists. He picked up seven assists in Saturday's win and is currently ranked third in the CW with 4.9 assists per game and is third in assist to turnover ratio at 2.1. In Saturday night's contest, the combo of Nathan Yu and Blain LaBranche combined to score 35 points on 9-of-15 shooting from three-point land. LaBranche ranks third in the league in three-point shooting percentage (43.0%) and is third on the T-Birds in scoring with 11.6 points per game, trailing Chris Dyck (14.9) and Whyte (12.9). Yu is averaging 6.1 points off the bench for a T-Birds squad that has nine players averaging at least 6 points per game. This scoring by committee accounts for the league's second highest scoring offence (84.5 ppg) while the T-Birds allow the second-fewest points against (67.2). They rank first at 71.5% shooting from the free throw line but have struggled the past two weeks dropping from 74%. UBC ranks in the top four of every other team category except for three-pointers made where they sit seventh.
CALGARY DINOS (15-3)
The Dinos suffered an 83-79 home defeat to the TWU Spartans last Saturday after easily taking care of the SFU Clan 70-42 on Friday. Much like UBC, Calgary ranks near the top of most team statistical categories. They are third in both scoring offence (83.2 per game) and scoring defence (68 per game), sit second with a 46.1% field goal percentage and allow their opponents a league-low 36.0% from the field. The Dinos biggest struggles are in three-point shooting – 32.6% from beyond the arc (8th) and 6.3 makes per game (10th) – and they have made 340 turnovers this season, fifth most in the CW. The Dinos rely heavily on their starting five, all of whom average at least 23 minutes per game and three play more than 29. Henry Bekkering ranks eighth in the league with 18.2 points per game and Robbie Sihota is not far behind in 10th with 16.6 per contest. Henry's younger brother Ross chips in with 15.4 points per game, good enough for 16th, and ranks second in the league with 10.6 boards per game. Tyler Fidler rounds out their scoring punch at 14.7 per game, with the top four Dinos all averaging more than Dyck who leads UBC at 14.2. Calgary, however, has just one other player who scores more than 4.5 points in sixth man Dominyc Coward at 6.8 per game. Point guard Jamie McLeod ranks tied for ninth in the league with 4.2 assists per game.
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