CALGARY - The University of Calgary Dinos men's team suffered a heartbreaking loss on Friday night at the Jack when they fell to the Cape Breton Capers 88-86.
Both teams showed they were evenly matched right off the bat as many lead changes occurred in the opening quarter. The first ended in favour of the home team 20-17. In the second, the Capers didn't pull away until later when they went on a run putting them up 32-25, forcing the Dinos to call a timeout. Off the timeout, Calgary was fired up, tying the game up at 32. It was the same story again as Cape Breton once again took the seven point lead before Calgary crawled back to tie again.
The half ended 48-46 for the Capers, with Josh Turner with 12 points and Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackso with another 11.
In the third quarter, Calgary gained a lead and held it throughout the quarter as they headed into the final ten minutes up 71-63, outscoring the Capers 25-15.
The fourth rolled around and Cape Breton began to claw their way back into the game. It was a one point game with just three minutes left and with a number of lead changes once again, the ball game was tied up at 84. It went down to the final shot where Sean McCormick hit a deep three pointer for the game winner.
Ogungbemi-Jackson had a game-high 25 points in the game for the Dinos followed by another 20 from Josh Turner. Josh Owen-Thomas also hit double digits with 15.
For the Capers, McCormick was the difference with a team-high 23, both Cedric Kasongo and AJ Guegjes scored 16 and Christian Affolter added another 10.
The Dinos host the Westminister Griffins for their final game of the tournament with tip-off set for 7 p.m. The Capers head to Mount Royal to play the Cougars at 6 p.m.
On the women's side, the Calgary Dinos hosted a familiar foe in the Alberta Pandas.
Right from the get-go the Pandas got on the board and there was minimal response from Calgary, as it took 11 points until the home team got on the board. The first quarter ended 19-4 in favour of the Pandas, with a number of missed free throws from the Dinos.
In the second quarter, the Dinos picked it up, scoring 14 points to Alberta's 16, but the gap created from the first quarter was tough to close. At halftime, the score read 35-18.
The Pandas continued to build their lead and it took until about half way through the quarter to extend it to 20 points. The final score was 69-44.
Tamara Jarrett was the only Dino to get into double digits with 11 points and Jessica Thielen socred another eight for Calgary. Alberta's Sarah Binns was the game-high scorer with 12 points and Kelly Lyons added another 11 in the Pandas win.
In the game of the tournament, the Dinos will play the York Lions at 5 p.m. while the Pandas will take on the Mount Royal Cougars down the road.
In the first game to kick off day two of the tournament, the Alberta Bears took on the Westminister Griffins.
In the first quarter, the Bears got off to a great start, taking a generous lead before the Griffins picked up the pace. The first quarter ended 16-11 in favour of Alberta. In the second, the battle began as both teams fought hard for the lead. Westminister outscored Alberta 20-14 heading into the half, giving them a one point deficit at 31-30.
The second half was a see-saw battle as both teams exchanged the lead and it continued throughout the fourth quarter. With both teams taking it down to the wire, it was Westminister that came out on top, 74-73.
For the Griffins, Tallon Robertson and Blake Skidmore both scored a game-high 23 points while teammate Jordan Pryor added ten more in the win.
Four Bears got into double digits in the game including Todd Bergen-Henengouwen with a team-high 15. Robert Dewar added 13 of his own and both Jordan Baker and Sahr Saffa scored 11 each.
Alberta will play McMaster at Mount Royal tomorrow at 4 p.m.
