CALGARY – The third-ranked University of Calgary Dinos improved to 13-0 on the season and extended their conference winning streak to 16 in an 80-61 defeat of the Mount Royal Cougars Thursday night at Kenyon Court.
Shaking off the Christmas break rust, the Dinos got the victory despite poor shooting that finally started to improve in the fourth quarter, improving to 13-0 on the season while dropping their crosstown rivals to 6-7.
"Both teams shot it poorly," said Dinos Head Coach
Dan Vanhooren. "It's one of those weird typical games after Christmas. I think our shooting will slowly come back and when it does I think I will be more pleased with this."
In the first quarter the Dinos and Cougars struggled from the field and were both standing tall defensively, with the Dinos leading 18–11 after the opening frame.
In the second quarter, the Dinos made themselves a little breathing room to work with, extending their lead to 35-25 at the half.
Former Mount Royal University Cougar,
Brett Layton, caused all kinds of problems defensively for his former team as he posted a commanding 27 points, 11 rebounds, and four blocks.
Mambi Diawara also pitched in 15 points and four rebounds.
Mason Foreman made a big contribution off the bench scoring 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting in his first regular season action this season.
The Cougars lost a hard fought game to the Dinos but received a big game from Glen Yang, who scored 25 points and six rebounds off 11-of-22 shooting. Samuel Willis III also scored 15 points for the Cougars.
Despite the win, the Dinos had a tough night from beyond the arc shooting 4-25 from three-point land and also turned the ball over 15 times.
"I'm happy we won but we turned the ball over too many times in the second half," said Vanhooren. "I thought we played pretty well in the first half. We just couldn't hit any shots."
The two teams will battle once again on Saturday night at 7 p.m. as the Dinos will look to wrap up the sweep on their home court in the Jack Simpson Gym.
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