VANCOUVER – Henry Bekkering fell just short of a triple-double on Friday night as he combined with Robbie Sihota for 57 points to lead the Calgary Dinos to a 96-65 win over the Trinity Western Spartans in the first Canada West semifinal at War Memorial Gym.
BOX SCORE
The win vaults the Dinos back to the CIS Final 8 for the first time since 2004 and helps ease the memories of last season's heartbreaking defeat at home in the same game.
It was no secret heading into Friday's tilt that the battle of the bigs would be an important one, as Calgary's fifth-year second-team conference all-star Henry Bekkering was matched up against Trinity Western's Jacob Doerksen, the MVP of Canada West. But while Bekkering flirted with a triple-double and energized his side by making plays all over the court, Doerksen and the rest of the Spartans were held in check by Calgary's defence, and after outscoring Trinity Western 26-9 in the first quarter, the Dinos' lead was never really threatened all night.
“Henry is a focused competitor and it's his fifth year so he is playing with a lot of urgency,” said Calgary coach Dan Vanhooren. “I think he is one of the best athletes in the nation by far, and when he plays well, he is hard to stop. He is definitely deserving of an all-star in this league and I'd nominate him for All-Canadian as well, because he played like one tonight.”
Bekkering finished with a game-high 29 points to go along with nine rebounds, seven assists, and 35 minutes of tireless effort. He helped to cement the Dinos' lead in the first quarter when, after driving to the hoop and finishing with an authoritative dunk, he picked up a steal on the ensuing Spartans possession, carried the ball up court, and made a nice pass to find Sihota for an open three-pointer, putting Calgary up 22-5.
Sihota had a strong showing for the Dinos as well, picking up 28 points and six assists while shooting five-of-six from beyond the arc.
Doerksen picked up nine points in the second quarter for Trinity Western, as the Spartans put together some scoring runs and managed to cut into Calgary's lead in the second frame, but he was held to just four points in the first quarter and was held off the scoreboard entirely in the second half.
Doerksen's six rebounds led the Spartans on Friday, as they were out-rebounded by Calgary 45-30 in the contest. Jamie Vaughn led the offence with 18 points.
“We felt like we could get up and press them a little bit and cause some havoc, and make Doerksen have to handle the ball a bit,” said Vanhooren. “That also took a lot of shot-clock time off so we only had to play defence against him for 14 or 15 seconds rather than a whole shot-clock so that was a big part of the reason why we did what we did. He is a great player and he showed that early because he still managed to get some good looks inside, and when he did, he scored.
“Robbie had a great night for us as well, and Tyler Fidler was excellent too, although he got into some foul trouble,” he went on. “When we have three guys going like that it's pretty hard to stop us. I'm just so proud of this team, that we executed and did our thing. And of course we're excited to qualify for nationals, but we have to re-focus and get ready for tomorrow night's game.”
The Dinos will play the winner of the UBC-Brandon semi-final for the Canada West title Saturday night at 7 p.m. local / 8 p.m. MT.
“We are going to enjoy this win for now and then I'll be up all night preparing,” said Vanhooren. “It's not like we have had much luck against UBC in the past couple years, and last time we played Brandon we lost by a point or two as well so we will prepare equally for both and give them our best shot.”
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