CALGARY – The Calgary Dinos men's basketball team led for just five minutes of regulation but they got hot late to force overtime and never trailed in the extra frame en route to a 110-94 win over the Trinity Western Spartans Saturday night from the Jack Simpson Gym.

One night after a 110-70 win over the Spartans, TWU came out as the aggressor in this one and built double-digit lead at the half. But the Dinos battled, taking their first lead of the second half with 52 seconds left before forcing overtime. In the OT session, Calgary scored the first nine points to finish off the weekend sweep.

The win is the 10th in a row for the Dinos who improve to 12-4 with the win. Meanwhile, the Spartans fall to 2-14 on the year. 

Nate Petrone led all players with 30 points, 11 rebounds and six assists in the win for the Dinos. Gurshan Sran added 14 and seven, while Martynas Sabaliauskas came off the bench and added 13 points in just 17 minutes. 

Javier Ramos-Yzquierdo added 12 points and six assist, while Noah Wharton and Dylan Lutes each scored 11 – with nine of Lutes' points coming in OT.

Five players scored in double figures for the Trinity Western, led by David Mutabazi with 21 points on 6-11 shooting. Connor Platz finished one rebound shy of a double-double with 18 points and nine boards, while Josh Belvin (17), Leif Skelding (16), and Marcus Shankar (11) all also had strong performances for the Spartans.

After a dominant first half for the Dinos on Friday, things were much more even in this one, as the two teams traded buckets with little separation for the first 18 minutes. Then, TWU got hot, going on a 14-3 run to close out the first half for a 51-40 lead at intermission.

A three from Mutabazi early in the third gave the Spartans what proved to be their largest lead of the night at 54-40, maintaining a sizeable lead until a late run by the Dinos late in the third tightened things to 68-66 heading into the fourth after a jumper by Petrone.

TWU pushed the lead back to 82-72 after a jumper from Belvin with 5:31 remaining, but the Dinos refused to quit, using a 9-0 run over the next 2:19 to pull within one. A pair of free throws by Lutes marked the first points of the game for the fourth-year guard and gave Calgary its first lead of the half at 87-86 with 52 seconds left. Belvin banked in a driving jumper on the ensuing possession to retake the lead for Trinity Western, but a free throw by Sran with 16 seconds left tied things up and sent this one to OT.

In the extra session, Lutes simply couldn't miss, going 3-3 from behind the arc as it was all Dinos down the stretch to run the win streak to 10 in a row.

Up next, the Dinos finish off their six-game homestand next weekend when Lethbridge comes to campus, starting Friday. Meanwhile, the Spartans return to Langley to host Mount Royal.

-UC-