CALGARY —Dylan Lutes and Nate Petrone combined for 52 points in their return to their former school to help lead the Calgary Dinos men's basketball team to a 96-80 win over Mount Royal Friday night from Kenyon Court.

The Dinos (10-3) offence was on fire all night long, finishing the night shooting 58.5 percent (38-65) overall in the convincing road win over their crosstown rivals.

Lutes led the way early, pouring in 17 of his season-high 25 in the first half, while the majority of Petrone's game-high 27 points came after the break.

Keivonte Watts lead the way for Mount Royal (8-6) with 27 points on 8-20 shooting from the floor to go with a 9-15 performance from the free-throw line.

Dray Walburger started the game by putting up the Cougars on the scoreboard with a quick layup. Kuach Gajak and Walburger got the crowd roaring with energy after each of them made a three-pointer, pushing the Cougars up to 12-9. After an early timeout from the Dinos, Watts skipped over a lob to Gajak for a two-hand flush. Daniels Baumanis tied up the score, 16-16, after making a three-pointer. As the first period came to an end, both teams were relentlessly defending one another while keeping the score within a close reach, 21-20 for the Dinos.

Lutes continued to make his presence known into the second period after picking up 11 points, a total of 17 points in the first half. As a team, Calgary almost didn't miss in the second stanza, going 10-14 from the floor, establishing a 47-37 lead at half.

Returning from halftime, both Dinos and Cougars eased their way into well executed set-plays. With the help of Sam Barnie, his 3rd bucket of the night tied the game to 53-53. However, Nate Petrone and Aidan Smith immediately responded by putting up two three-pointers, 59-53 for the Dinos. Gajak made his second dunk on a fast break after Walburger generated the steal. Baumanis finished the third quarter by sinking a buzzer beater three, stretching the Dinos' lead to 73-64. Petrone led all players with 15 points in the third - accounting for almost two-thirds of the Dinos' 26 points in the period.

Entering the last quarter, MRU got off to a good start as Watts drained a three-point shot to cut the deficit down to six. However, the Dinos went on a scoring run which pushed the Cougars' deficit to 19 at 94-75, smothering their rivals with relentless scoring en route to the convincing win.

The Cougars will return to Kenyon Court in a rematch against the Dinos at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

-UC-