BOX SCORE

CALGARY – Reigning Canada West player of the year Jamelle Barrett put up 40 points – and his No. 4-ranked Saskatchewan Huskies needed almost every one of them to record a hard out against the University of Calgary Dinos Saturday night, splitting their weekend series with a 90-83 win in the Jack Simpson Gym.

Barrett's 40-point outburst was back-loaded, with 30 of them coming in the second half as he outscored the rest of his team 30-23 after the break to lift the Huskies to their seventh win of the season. It was also just two off his career high of 42, set last season against Trinity Western, and it featured some absolutely ridiculous shot-making – including a turnaround fadeaway three-ball late in the shot clock with a man in his face late in the game. For good measure, he added nine assists in 34 minutes on the floor after a quiet – for his standards – 17-point outing Friday.

Saskatchewan improves to 7-4 with the victory, while the host Dinos drop to 4-8 with eight games remaining in the regular season.

Despite the loss, Dinos head coach Dan Vanhooren was pleased with his team's effort and a split with a top-10 team.

“I thought our kids played hard,” said Vanhooren. “We had some executional issues here and there, a couple of stints where we shot the ball from the perimeter too much. We took too many jump shots and didn't get to the foul line enough, and that's going to take a more aggressive mentality.”

The biggest of those lapses for the Dinos came in the third quarter, when the Huskies – led by 15 points from Barrett – put up 32 points against 22 for the home side to turn what had been a three-point halftime lead into an insurmountable 13-point advantage at 69-56. Calgary did manage to outscore the Huskies 27-21 in the final frame, but Barrett again had 15 points in the fourth.

When they did get to the free throw line, the Dinos were successful – moving into top spot on the Canada West leaderboard in free throw percentage by scoring 19 of 22 attempts. Saskatchewan won the rebounding battle 42-33.

Again, point guard Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson was the catalyst offensively for Calgary, scoring 20 points and hauling in eight rebounds in just his second game back from injury. Boris Bakovic continued to make his presence felt, scoring 19 while collecting nine boards, while Tyler Fidler (13) and Keenan Milburn (10) also cracked double digits in scoring.

Saskatchewan got 14 big points from Ben Baker, who shot 4-for-6 from the field and connected on both of his three-point shots. Duncan Jones put up 11, while Peter Lomuro added 10. The Huskies scored four more field goals (32) than the Dinos, all of them treys as the visitors shot 41.4 per cent from beyond the arc.

Senior forward Michael Lieffers led Saskatchewan with 10 rebounds.

The Huskies return home to host Thompson Rivers and UBC Okanagan next week, while the Dinos head south for a huge two-game series against the Lethbridge Pronghorns. Heading into next weekend, Calgary trails Lethbridge and Brandon (both 5-7) by a single game for the fourth guaranteed playoff spot in the east division.

“These games give us confidence going into Lethbridge next week, and we're going to need to play at least at this level to win down there,” said Vanhooren. “If we can get at least a split, it puts us in pretty good shape to make a run for the playoffs.”

Calgary returns home Jan. 27-28 for the Battle of Alberta against the Golden Bears.

-UC-