BOX SCORE CALGARY – They shot the lights out in the first half, then had the home crowd in the frenzy down the stretch – but the University of Calgary Dinos escaped with a 93-92 in over the Trinity Western Spartans Saturday night in the Jack Simpson Gym.

After shooting 60 per cent, an otherworldly 81.8 per cent from beyond the arc, and putting up 60 points in the opening half, the Dinos carried a 15-point lead into the break. But the Spartans, led by a 36-point effort from Tonner Jackson, gave the Dinos all they could handle in the late going with 28 points in the fourth quarter. The visitors had the ball with less than five seconds to go, but nearly 10 minutes and three time outs later, Tyler Linttell's desperation jumpshot at the buzzer wasn't even close.

The Dinos improve to the .500 mark on the season at 7-7 and keep their playoff hopes alive in the Canada West Prairie Division, while the Spartans fall to 5-9 on the campaign.

“They got to the rim, some guys hit some shots, and we were lucky to get out of it,” said Calgary head coach Dan Vanhooren. “Coming out of halftime in a game like that is sometimes a coach's worst nightmare because you know you probably won't be able to maintain that. But they have scored 90 in their past three games, and they're a very good basketball team. With our youth, we were fortunate to be able to beat them tonight.”

Calgary point guard Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson finished just three rebounds and two assists shy of a triple-double, pacing the Dinos with an outstanding 28-point performance that included only a seven-second break at the end of the first half. The third-year Winnipeg native picked up seven of those assists in the opening half, with four of them helping on three-balls by Thijin Moses. Moses had 17 in the first 20 minutes, shooting 4-for-5 from beyond the arc to that point. He finished the night with a 20-point, 10-rebound double-double – his second in as many nights.

The Dinos made 21 field goals including nine threes in the first 20 minutes.

“To be honest, I was stunned,” said Vanhooren of his team's first-half performance. 'We were terrific. We had five turnovers, we hit open shots, we moved and attacked and set good screens, and we moved all over the place defensively. We're averaging 74 in a game, so to put up 60 in a half was impressive.”

All night, though, the Dinos had all kinds of match-up issues with third-year Spartans forward Tonner Jackson, who used his size and strength to power his way to a 36-point outing on 16-of-27 shooting from the field. Critically, however, Jackson fouled out with less than two minutes remaining, joining teammate Mark Perrin on the bench with five fouls for the final minutes. The pair accounted for 48 of the Spartans' 92 points on the night and were unavailable for the final thrust.

And yet the Spartans almost managed it anyway. Linttell hit a three with 35 seconds to play to bring Trinity Western within one, and an awkward fadeaway by Ogungbemi-Jackson missed the mark on the other end of the floor to set up the extended finale. After the Dinos checked the ball out of bounds with 4.1 seconds left, both teams used a time out. With a foul to give, Ogungbemi-Jackson alertly committed an infraction to keep the Spartans from shooting the ball – eating up two seconds in the process – and after a final time out, Linttell was unable to get a good look at the game-winning shot as the Dinos bench exhaled.

It's a quick turnaround for the Dinos, who head to Winnipeg to face the Wesmen for a Thursday-Friday series next week. The Spartans, meanwhile, head home to host the Mount Royal University Cougars.

-UC-