EDMONTON – Canada West leading scorer Nate Petrone continued his dominant start with a game-high 25 points to help lead the Calgary Dinos to an 78-59 win to sweep the Alberta Golden Bears Saturday night at the Saville Centre.

Petrone, who was incredibly efficient shooting 9-for-12 from the field and 3-for-5 from three, was joined by Aidan Smith who had 15 points to maintain Calgary's perfect start to the season at 4-0 – their first since the 2019-20 season. They were thoroughly in control in this one, leading the entire game and shooting the lights out from the field with a 48.3% mark. They also won the rebounding and turnover battle at 35-34 and 15-21, respectively, in what was a complete performance from the visitors.

Alberta was paced by rookie Nash Seminiuk who had a team-high 16 points. They struggled to get anything going on the offensive end, getting held to a 39.3 percent performance from the field and an uncharacteristic 9-for-20 from the charity stripe. They drop to 0-2 in the early season as they look to grab their first win of the year next weekend.

In a very defensive and physical first quarter, the Dinos were able to edge out a slim 14-8 lead thanks to a quarter-high four points from Noah Wharton. They led the whole way as Alberta looked to gain some sort of offensive momentum heading into the second.

Both teams picked up the pace on the offensive side of the floor in the second, but it was the Bears who jumped out to a 9-5 run to cut the Calgary lead to two early in the frame. Petrone would respond for the Dinos, hitting two straight threes to put the lead back at 29-19, part of his half-high 14 points. Seminiuk impressed off the bench for the Bears with a team-high five points in the frame, but the Dinos were just too strong in the halfcourt offence as they took a 39-28 lead into the intermission.

It was Calgary that grabbed momentum out of the break, immediately going on a 13-4 run punctuated by a triad of Petrone jumpers and layups to build a 20-point lead and force a couple Alberta timeouts by the midway point. When the dust settled, a 25-15 quarter in favour of the visitors would put them up 64-43 heading into the final frame.

A quiet fourth was dominated by Seminiuk, who had a quarter-high eight of his 16 total points, but a depth Dinos effort that saw seven different scorers in the frame was enough to cruise to a 78-59 victory.

The Golden Bears head to Saskatoon to face the Saskatchewan Huskies next weekend, while the Dinos return home for a series against the MacEwan Griffins.

-UC-