BOX SCORE CALGARY – Thijin Moses was up to his old tricks again Friday night, scoring 24 in a 37-minute effort to help the University of Calgary Dinos to a weekend split with the Alberta Golden Bears thanks to an 84-73 win in the Jack Simpson Gym.
In the process, Calgary handed No. 10 Alberta its first loss of the season as the Bears fall to 3-1 while the Dinos improve to 2-2.
A night after scoring 28 in a losing cause during Friday night's 77-76 Golden Bears win, Moses was a perfect 9-for-9 from the free throw line and 7-12 from the field to lead the Dinos to victory.
For head coach
Dan Vanhooren, it was relief to come away with the win after leading by 11 points in the final three minutes – the same situation as a night earlier, when Alberta had gone on a 12-0 run to nip the Dinos by one point.
“We went over some things today, and we had quite a long pre-game meeting about what our end-game needs to look like and what our control needs to be,” said Vanhooren. “We did turn it over down the stretch, but it wasn't in multiple possessions, and we made some plays.
“What was huge for us was that Mitch (Ligertwood) came out and became a third scorer for us – and when he was off, (Dallas) Karch was doing it. We got contributions from the other guys that are around Thijin and Jarred (Ogungbemi-Jackson), and it created some significant problems for them.”
Ogungbemi-Jackson, the Dinos' third-year point guard, had a big double-double with 17 points and 13 rebounds on the night, 12 of those boards on the defensive glass. Rookie post Ligertwood picked up 11 points in 19 minutes on 4-of-6 shooting for the Dinos.
Calgary trailed by a deuce at half time after being outscored 20-16 in the second quarter, but came out firing in the third and enjoyed a 28-20 advantage in that stanza. They managed to maintain their edge in the fourth to extend it to an 11-point win.
The Dinos shot an impressive 52 per cent from the field, including 58 per cent in the second half, while the Bears struggled to just 35 per cent – including a scant 5-for-27 from beyond the arc on the night.
Once again Alberta was led by Jordan Baker, who picked up 20 points – almost all of them in the second half – and took nearly a third of the Bears' 23 field goal attempts. Critically, Baker was 0-for-6 from three-point territory and just 2-for-6 from the line, and the Dinos did a solid job on the defensive glass in grabbing 33 rebounds. On the whole, Calgary out-boarded Alberta 43-36.
Ken Otieno's 18 points off the bench followed Baker in scoring for the Bears, while Youssef Ouahrig contributed 14 and Todd Bergen-Henengouwen added 13.
Alberta returns home next week to host Lethbridge, while the Dinos head on the road for a tough two-game series at the PAC in Saskatoon against the Saskatchewan Huskies.
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