CALGARY – For the first 31 minutes of Friday night's Crowchild Classic men's basketball game, fans were treated to a quality back-and-forth affair. Then the final spellbinding nine minutes happened.

The Calgary Dinos emerged victorious over the Mount Royal Cougars Friday night, 112-103, in front of a thunderous Jack Simpson Gym.

Emotions ran high from the outset, but reached a fever-pitch early in the fourth quarter, when opposing All-star guards Noah Wharton and Holt Tomie received offsetting unsportsmanlike fouls. The verbal dust-up eventually resulted in two Cougars being ejected from the game. 

The extracurriculars was all Holt Tomie needed to shake off (metaphorically and physically) the hounding Dinos defence that had plagued the leading scorer in Canada West for the opening three quarters. 

"I think the first three quarters, we did a solid job of locking him up, but we just got tired and fouls played into our head a little bit and he started getting going" said Jeffrey Tezo postgame. 

After starting 2-9 from the field and registering 11 points in the opening three quarters, Tomie erupted for 16 points in the fourth quarter to propel the Cougars within two points after trailing by as many as 16.

Tomie's torrid fourth was countered with some of the best three-point shooting seen at The Jack in quite some time. The Dinos shot 10-17 in the second half alone from distance, finishing the evening with 17 makes from beyond the arc. 

With five minutes remaining in the fourth and the Dinos nursing a six point lead, the two teams traded five-consecutive made 3's in under one minute. Tezo buried two of his seven triples during this stretch, and ended the night with a game-high and career-high 31 points and six assists.

"My first shot went in and I was kind of feeling it," Tezo said. "My teammates trusted me throughout the whole game so I just kept shooting."

Tezo and backcourt partner Noah Wharton rebuilt the Dinos lead following the three-point barrage, only to see it slip away once again in the final minute. Three consecutive steals by the Cougars full-court press brought Mount Royal within five points late. But, with four players fouled-out or ejected, the Cougars ran out of lives and couldn't cap the herculean comeback effort.

The cross-town matchup concludes Saturday during Senior Night at the Jack Simpson Gym at 6 pm, with the game once again streamed live on Canada West TV.

-UC-