CALGARY – After managing just 19 points in the first 20 minutes, including only six in the second quarter, the Alberta Golden Bears posted an incredible 59 points in the second half, handing the Calgary Dinos just their second loss of the season by a 78-62 score Saturday night at the Jack Simpson Gym.
BOX SCORE
After taking a 10-point lead into the half, Calgary's shooting went colder than the -38 wind chill factor outside the Jack just as Alberta began to heat up. Run after run in the second half cut into the Dinos' lead and then enhanced that of the Bears, who handed Calgary its first home defeat in conference play since Feb. 10, 2007.
“It's a good learning lesson for us, that you have to play 40 minutes of defence,” said a frustrated Calgary coach Dan Vanhooren after seeing his charges drop to 10-2 on the season. “We didn't play well in the second half, we didn't score, and when we don't score our defence seems to follow our offence, and we snowballed into watching them hit open jumpers all night long.”
Open jumpers are only beneficial if you hit them, of course, and the Bears took full advantage of their opportunities in hitting 10 three-point buckets in the second half. Four of those came from the sure hands of Eric Casey, who scored all 12 of his points from behind the arc in the second half.
Alberta opened the third quarter on a 10-1 run to bring the Calgary lead down to just a single point before the Dinos re-established a sizable lead with a 9-1 run of their own, and it was 39-30 for the home side. Casey's first two treys cut four-point Calgary leads to one, and Justin VanLoo hit a 15-foot jumper with four seconds left in the third to give Alberta the lead they had relinquished early in the second quarter, and it was 49-48 Bears with 10 minutes to play.
The Bears' full-court press caused all kinds of problems for the Dinos as the final 10 minutes opened, and Casey hit back-to-back threes to extend the lead to seven. Alberta enjoyed a 13-0 run over the end of the third and beginning of the fourth before a Ross Bekkering dunk put a stop to it, but the damage had been done. Calgary would come no closer than six points for the rest of the night as the Bears followed up their 30-point third quarter with 29 in the fourth to take the 16-point victory.
Calgary was playing without all-star Henry Bekkering for the second straight night after he re-aggravated a neck injury last weekend in Winnipeg, and his absence was noticeable on the floor for the Dinos.
“Offensively we have some things to repair without Henry in our lineup, so that we can score some buckets,” Vanhooren went on. “We need some guys to hit some shots too. We went 1-for-11 from the three-point line in the first half, and we can't do that and expect to be successful.”
The Dinos finished the night 4-for-21 from behind the arc and committed 22 turnovers, while Alberta hit better than 40 per cent from three point land while turning the ball over just 12 times.
VanLoo paced Alberta with 17 points on the night as the Bears improved to 6-6 on the season, still four games behind Calgary in the Central Division race. Neb Aleksic added 15 points, while Harvey Bradford (13), Casey (12), and Scott Leigh (11) rounded out the Bears who hit double digits on the night. Leigh also hauled in a team-high nine rebounds to go with five assists.
Despite his 0-for-6 stat from behind the arc, Tyler Fidler racked up 15 points to lead the Dinos, with rookie guard Andy Rochon adding 11 and fourth year forward Robbie Sihota chipping in with 10. Ross Bekkering missed out on the double-double by one point, potting nine to go with 12 boards.
The Dinos and Bears will both host divisional games against opponents coming off short weeks Jan. 8-9. The Lethbridge Pronghorns and Saskatchewan Huskies play a two-game set starting Sunday in Saskatoon, with Lethbridge making a second consecutive road trip to Edmonton next weekend. Saskatchewan will visit Calgary for a two-game series in the Jack Simpson Gym.
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