BOX SCORE CALGARY – Winnipeg native Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson had another fantastic night against his hometown team, scoring 33 points to lead the University of Calgary Dinos to an 87-78 victory over the Manitoba Bisons Friday night in the season opener for both teams.

The third-year point guard out of Winnipeg's Garden City Collegiate went a perfect 7-for-7 from beyond the arc on the night as the Dinos pulled away late in the second half after frittering away a 12-point lead in the opening 20. The game featured eight lead changes and was a one-point affair for much of the third quarter before Calgary began to put some distance between themselves and the Bisons.

“It's a conference win, but other than that and some of the good shooting we did there weren't too many positives tonight,” said Dinos head coach Dan Vanhooren. “Our transition defence was horrible. In the first half we gave up a ton of offensive rebounds – that got better in the second half. They ran out on us and got a lot of open shots and lay-ups, and it's clear we need to do a better job defensively.

“But I was really impressed with Jarred's performance. He knows all those guys, and he's been fired up to play them all week. He shot the ball extremely well tonight. But we can't always count on shooting the ball that well – the scary thing is that we shot that well and it was still a close game.”

The Bisons' fourth-year guard Stephan Walton, an Atlanta native, nearly matched Ogungbemi-Jackson shot-for-shot on the night, shooting 4-of-9 from three-point land and 9-of-16 from the field to finish with 26 on the night.

Manitoba easily won the battle on the glass in the opening 20, giving up 11 offensive rebounds while picking up just 15 defensive boards of their own. Calgary opened up a 12-point lead just six minutes into the game, but that evaporated in the late stages of the first quarter as Manitoba pulled back within four after 10. That propelled the Bisons to a 24-17 win in the second, led by 13-point first half effort by Jonar Huertas, and it was 43-40 at half time.

The third quarter was tight until the end, with the Dinos scoring four points in the final 12 seconds – including a nice steal and lay-up at the buzzer by Nebojsa Kuljic – to take a 62-58 lead into the fourth. With an abundance of young players on the floor into the final frame, the Dinos continued to build on that margin and outscored the Bisons 25-20 in the fourth to take the nine-point win.

“Our youth picked it up when we gave Jarred and Thijin (Moses) a break, and they gave us the spread in the game,” said Vanhooren. “They deserve a lot of credit for this one.”

Freshman Dallas Karch got his first CIS start and picked up a pair of big back-to-back blocks in the opening half, while Jasdeep Gill came off the bench and put up eight points for the Dinos. Mitch Ligertwood also made a solid contribution in his first CIS game, scoring seven and hauling down and equal number of rebounds to lead the Dinos off the glass.

Moses added to Ogungbemi-Jackson's gaudy numbers from long range, shooting 4-of-6 from three and putting up 14 points in an efficient 26-minute effort. As a team, the Dinos shot 70.6 per cent from outside the arc.

In addition to Walton's 26 and Huertas's 19, Yigit Ozsayiner came off the bench to play 28 minutes and score a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds. The Bisons shot 35.1 per cent from the field, while Calgary was efficient at 46 per cent.

The Dinos and Bisons renew acquaintances Saturday night in the Jack, with tip-off at 7 p.m. MT.

-UC-