CALGARY – The University of Calgary Dinos outscored the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades 34-16 in the final 15 minutes en route to an 80-62 victory in Calgary.
BOX SCORE
The Dinos held the Cascades to three points over an eight minute stretch in the fourth quarter, highlighting another solid defensive effort for the No. 3 team in the nation. Before Friday's match, Calgary ranked second in Canada West in points against, allowing only 60.5 points per game.
Along with holding them to only 62 points, Calgary forced Fraser Valley into 32 team turnovers, 17 of which were Dinos steals.
Rookie Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson was terrific on Friday, accounting for 16 points while leading the team in minutes played. However it was the first year point guard's defence that stood out the most, getting six steals and deflecting numerous other Cascade opportunities.
Head coach Dan Vanhooren was very satisfied with the play of his young guard thus far.
“Jarred tore it up out there tonight,” said the coach. “He does a lot for us; when we need big plays, he delivers.”
“He provides great momentum swings, with his ability to get a steal and an easy bucket on the other end,” Vanhooren continued.
Ross Bekkering, who represented the Dinos on Canada's men's basketball team at the Summer Universiade in Belgrade this past July, gave the Cascades fits down low after playing limited minutes in four early season lopsided victories. The fifth year forward had 25 points and 11 strong boards to lead the way for the Dinos.
The Dinos received solid contributions from fifth year point guard Jamie McLeod as well, who despite seven first half turnovers added 11 points, five rebounds and five assists.
Kyle Grewal made an early statement for the Cascades, throwing down a big jam early in the game to put Fraser Valley up by four. It was a dunk that sparked three quarters of gritty effort from the Cascades, where they at one point drew even with Calgary at 46 midway through the third.
However both Bekkering and rookie shooting guard Andrew McGuinness put any thoughts of an upset to rest, where both players turned Joel Friesen three point misses into three point makes of their own. The Dinos used the trifectas, along with four points from Ogungbemi-Jackson, to jump out in front by 10, where they would never look back.
Friesen, a rookie for the Cascades, scored 16 points and added eight rebounds in the losing effort. Grewal finished with 12 points and three rebounds, while teammate Zeon Gray added a little bit of everything with 12 points, six rebounds and four assists.
The Cascades fall to 2-1 on the year, and will travel to Lethbridge tomorrow night to face the Pronghorns, who improved to 2-3 in beating the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack 84-75 in their Friday duel.
With the victory, Coach Vanhooren was much more impressed with his team's defence then he was the offence.
“In order for us to do what we want to do offensively, we need to take care of the basketball, and I wasn't happy with our turnovers tonight (20 in total),” continued Vanhooren. “But I was very pleased with our defence; we took it to them late in the third and for all of the fourth. That's what we got to do to win games.”
The Dinos improve to a league leading 5-0 and will host the Thompson Rivers WolfPack, which is off to a rough start at 0-3 in conference action, Saturday night in the Jack.
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