VANCOUVER – The Calgary Dinos relied on some late game dramatics to edge the UBC Thunderbirds 81-79 in a Canada West thriller at War Memorial Gym on Friday night.
Calgary scored the final 11 points of the game to overcome a nine-point deficit to improve to 1-0 on the year with their 27th consecutive victory in Canada West play.
"For a good amount of the fourth quarter, I thought we allowed ourselves to get beat up physically by them," Calgary coach
Dan Vanhooren said after the game. "We kind of lost our composure for a bit, I got to give it to the guys who hit some shots."
The final minute was an intense one, beginning with a three from
Max Eisele cut the 'Birds lead to one. Then it was a block by
Brett Layton which lead to a
Noah Wharton and-1, to put the Dinos up two, sealing the win for the visitors in their regular season opener.
The Dinos were led offensively by
Mason Foreman and
Simon Kutzschmar who scored 15 points each.
Noah Wharton also chipped in 13 points which included the all-important game winner. For the T-Birds, Jadon Cohee led the way with 17 points and eight assists. Manroop Clair and Grant Audu chipped in with 16 and 15 points, respectively. Audu was aided by shooting a perfect 3-for-3 from behind the arc.
The visiting Dinos jumped out to a blistering start, out-scoring the 'Birds 13-4 in the opening five minutes of play. Thanks to Jadon Cohee, who scored 11 points in the opening frame, the T-Birds were able cut into that deficit, trailing just 23-19 at the end of the opening 12 minutes.
The Dinos opened the second quarter on a 14-4 run. From there, it was the 'Birds turn. Three-pointers from Audu and Zack Moore capped off a 14-2 run for the T-Birds who found themselves back in the game, trailing 44-38 at the half.
The T-Birds started the third on a 9-to-4 run cutting the deficit to two. Clair lead the way for the 'Birds hitting a couple of three-pointers. Wharton who hit a three of his own also chipped in with a couple assists for the Dinos found themselves up five heading into the final 12 minutes.
The T-Birds took their first lead of the game following a Brian Wallack three that was immediately followed up by a three from Cohee forcing the Dinos to call a timeout down four.
From there, UBC would gain control while energizing the crowd thanks to a couple more three pointers and topped off by a Grant Sheppard put-back dunk that had War Memorial gym rocking.
In the end it wasn't to be for the T-Birds as the Dinos battled back in a compelling contest to secure the last-second victory while spoiling the 'Birds home opener.
The weekend series continues Saturday night with tip-off set for 8 p.m. MT, live on CanadaWest.tv presented by Co-op.
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