REGINA – Going up against a squad that needed to win to punch their postseason ticket, the Calgary Dinos men's basketball team got off to a strong start and held on from there for an 83-70 win over Regina Saturday evening from the Centre for Kinesiology, Health and Sport.

The Dinos finished off the weekend sweep of the Cougars to move to 16-4 and finish in a three-way tie in the Canada West Prairie Division. Based on tiebreakers, Calgary finishes as the No. 2 team in the division, meaning they will host a play-in game between Trinity Western and Brandon inside the Jack Simpson Gym Friday afternoon before taking on the winner of that game Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, the Cougars finished the regular season 6-14 and one game behind Brandon for the seventh and final playoff spot in the division.

The nation's leading scorer Nate Petrone once again led the way in this grind-it-out contest, finishing with a game-high 21 points to go with five boards. Martynas Sabaliauskas had a big night and finished with 17 points on 4-6 shooting – including 3-4 from behind the arc – to go with six boards. Dylan Lutes also was big for the Scarlet & Gold in this one, racking up 16 points on 8-14 shooting to go with a game-high eight rebounds.

Lodie Kenyi had a team-high 17 points for Regina, while Ben Kamba and Jamie White each added 14.

It was all Dinos early, as they raced out to a 13-3 lead on a Petrone jumper just under four minutes into the game. A triple by Daniels Baumanis – who finished a perfect 3-3 from deep – made it 25-9 for Calgary with 2:52 still to play in the opening frame. The Dinos opened the game connecting on 10 of their first 13 shots overall before finally coming back to earth, finishing the first with a seven-point lead.

Regina would keep things relatively close in the second, keeping the game within single digits the majority of the way, but the Dinos were still able to maintain their lead and were up 40-33 at halftime.

Two quick buckets to start the third had the Cougars within three at 40-37, but the Dinos responded and went back ahead 57-45 after a triple by Sabaliauskas and a layup by Petrone late in the frame. 

Calgary had complete control the rest of the way, leading by double digits for all but 23 seconds over the final quarter-plus.

The Dinos now turn their attention to the postseason, where they finished one game shy of the U SPORTS Final 8 a season ago. 

-UC-