CALGARY – The tortoise outlasted the hare Friday night, as the University of Calgary Dinos won the Battle of Alberta, 85-79, at the Jack Simpson Gym. The University of Alberta blitzed Calgary with an 18-3 head start and held the lead until the four-minute mark of the third quarter, but was unable to close out the gritty contest against the Dinos.

Fahad Yusuf took exception to the Dinos scouting report in the early minutes, knocking down two open threes as part of the first quarter barrage. The Golden Bears' advantage ebbed and flowed as their three-point shot did, and in the opening half they capitalized on their missed 3's with second chance points. Alberta had 16 second chance points in the first half courtesy of 12 offensive rebounds. 

"Even though we had a slow start we talked about it at halftime, we talked about not getting too down on ourselves, and we did exactly that," said Dinos rookie forward Daniel Chijioke postgame. 

Like a good book, the Dinos opened and closed each quarter with a run to stymie any Golden Bears' momentum. A 13-0 run spanned the end of the first and start of the second quarters, followed by a 12-0 run to bookend the third intermission. 

The triumvirate of Dre Francis, Chijioke and Daniels Baumanis buoyed the Dinos offence, each scoring at least 17 for Calgary. Francis was the metronome that kept pace with the Alberta attack early, while Chijioke took them across the finish line.

"Regardless of the score or the minutes I get, I have put in my best effort...and that's what pushed me to be more aggressive in the fourth quarter," added Chijioke.

Alberta's three-point shot dried up to start the 4th, part of a six-minute scoreless streak that ultimately gave the Dinos their largest lead of the night at 78-68. The Golden Bears cut the lead to five on multiple occasions but could never string together enough stops to recapture the lead. Calgary shot 75% from the field in the 4th quarter to keep the game out of reach.

The second half of the Battle of Alberta kicks off Saturday night at 6 p.m., with the action available live on CanadaWestTV presented by BioSteel. 

-UC-