KAMLOOPS, B.C. – A night after managing to drain just 30 percent of their shots, the University of Calgary Dinos rectified the situation and grabbed a potentially season-saving 82-68 victory over the Thompson Rivers WolfPack at the Tournament Capital Centre in Kamloops.
BOX SCORE
On the strength of a season-best performance from transfer guard
Keenan Milburn, who had 21 points, the Dinos avenged their Friday night loss to TRU and improved to 6-12 on the season with six games remaining, keeping their playoff hopes alive – at least for the time being.
“We played some transition defence tonight, and they had to score with us in front of them rather than getting behind us for easy lay-ups,” said Dinos head coach
Dan Vanhooren. “Had we done that last night, it would have been a different game. Last night we were flat-out terrible, and it was one of our worst offensive outputs based on the shots we were getting.”
In the rematch, Calgary shot an impressive 54.5 percent from beyond the arc, draining 12 of their 22 three-ball attempts. Five of those came courtesy Milburn, who put up 19 of his 21 in the opening half.
“Keenan and some scoring off the bench was the difference tonight,” said Vanhooren. “Youri (
Anissovets) had 14 off the bench as well, and
Josh Wolfram came in and got 10 big points for us. We shot the ball well, we got some open looks, and we shared the ball when we needed to.”
The Dinos exploded offensively in the opening quarter, leading by as many as 18 before the WolfPack cut it to a 30-17 advantage at the break. Calgary also won the second quarter, albeit by a much smaller 17-16 margin to take a 47-33 lead into halftime.
A three-pointer by Wolfram, the hometown boy out of South Kamloops High School, with 3:04 remaining in the first quarter gave Calgary a double-digit lead that they held for the remainder of the game. From that point on, Thompson Rivers couldn't cut the deficit to less than 10 points.
Calgary's shooting softened somewhat in the second half, but the Dinos still kept it above 40 percent as they took the 14-point win.
Outside Milburn and Annisovets,
Tyler Fidler (11),
Matt Letkeman (10), and Wolfram were the other Dinos to reach double digits in scoring. Fidler, who had a quiet night and played just 23 minutes thanks to foul trouble, still managed to lead Calgary with eight rebounds.
Big man Greg Stewart was the key player for Thompson Rivers, draining 17 points while grabbing 19 rebounds – 11 of the offensive variety. Chas Kok paced the WolfPack with 18 points.
The road gets difficult for the Dinos as they close out the season with six more games on the slate. With six of the eight playoff spots already locked up, Calgary (6-12) will battle with Manitoba (9-9), Fraser Valley (6-12), and Lethbridge (5-15) for the last two spots in the post-season. It all starts next week when the Dinos host the Manitoba Bisons for a two-game set at the Jack Simpson Gym, with tip-off set for 8 p.m. Feb. 4 and 5.
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