WINNIPEG – The Winnipeg Wesmen withstood a gallant comeback effort from the University of Calgary Dinos and advanced to the Canada West men's basketball Final Four.
The Wesmen built a 22-point second-half lead and held on to clip the Dinos 82-69 in a conference men's basketball quarter-final Saturday afternoon at the Duckworth Centre.
The Wesmen will move on to host a semifinal next weekend - the first time in program history they will play host to a men's basketball semi.
And while they cruised early — going up 59-37 with 5:15 to play in the third — the Dinos hung around and hung around, starting with a 13-0 run that got Calgary to 59-50 a mere three minutes later.
The Wesmen pushed it back up to 15 less than a minute into the fourth, but the Dinos had another run or two in them trimming Winnipeg's advantage to 75-69 with 3:10 left.
But the Wesmen, one of the stingiest defensive teams in the country, came up with the necessary stops, holding Calgary without a point the rest of the way.
Dinos head coach
Dan Vanhooren lamented transition breakdowns that allowed Winnipeg to finish with a 24-2 advantage in fast-break points.
"We had a little bit more ball pressure (in the second half)," Vanhooren said. "The truth is, in the quarter court, we weren't bad even in the first half. In the first half what we gave up was just transition run-outs. Even when (the Wesmen) made that last little push at the end, it was all transition."
Alberto Gordo led five Wesmen in double figures with 20 points and a career-high 15 rebounds to go along with five rebounds and three steals. Kato Jaro scored 15 with nine assists, six rebounds and four steals. Ryan Luke Elijah Mensah both had 13 with Luke grabbing nine rebounds, and Malachi Alexander scored 10.
Mrigendra Dhaliwal scored 19 of his game-high 23 points in the first half and added three blocks and two steals for the Dinos. Daniel Baumanis chipped in with 15.
Calgary now turns its attention to hosting this year's U SPORTS Final 8, scheduled for March 6-8 inside the Jack Simpson Gym.
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