Ben Matchett; Dinos Communications
CALGARY – The top-seeded University of Calgary Dinos exploded for 55 first-half points in the opening game of their Canada West and U SPORTS title defences, wrapping up a 98-57 Game 1 win over the Winnipeg Wesmen Friday night in the Jack Simpson Gym.
Game 2 of the best-of-three Canada West quarter-final goes Saturday at 8 p.m. MT in the Jack Simpson Gym, where the Dinos will look to put themselves one step closer to a fourth straight trip to the national championship.
On the strength of a monster second quarter, the Dinos took a 55-22 lead into the half in this one. Calgary picked up 33 points in the second stanza, at one point going on a 19-0 that spanned nearly six minutes. The Dinos went 6-for-8 from beyond the arc in the quarter, while Winnipeg managed just three field goals.
Mambi Diawara led the Dinos with 25 points, one of six Calgary players in double-digits on the night. Post Brett Layton joined Diawara in double-double territory with his 15-point, 12-rebound night, with David Kapinga chipping in with 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field. The home side was absolutely dominant on the glass, out-rebounding the eighth-seeded Wesmen 61-27.
Narcisse Ambanza paced the Wesmen with 11 points, while Joseph Medrano and Billy Yaworsky each picked up nine. Winnipeg's shooting improved significantly in the second half, with the Wesmen even winning the third quarter 22-19, but the hole was too deep as the Dinos cruised to the 41-point victory.
For Dinos Head Coach Dan Vanhooren, though, there's still plenty to work on.
"If I'm being critical, we had way too many turnovers in the first half with 15," said the 19-year bench boss. "Overall, though, we did a good job defensively and a good job rebounding the ball, which was one of our keys to the game.
"They'll push back harder tomorrow, and we need to be prepared for that. They can really shoot the ball and get themselves back in a game – if you're up 10 on them, you're really not away from them. We have to concentrate all the time, follow our scout and make sure we know where the guys are that can knock it in."
Winnipeg, which averaged nearly 92 points per game in the regular season, shot well below the 45.2 average the Wesmen put up on the year. Sean Tarver, the Wesmen's second-leading scorer, hit just one field goal for two points in 26 minutes, with Don Dayrit scoring half his season average with five.
For the Dinos, Kapinga picked up five steals on the night in an efficient 20 minutes of court time, while Lucas Mannes chipped in with 16 points, including a trio of treys.
CanadaWest.tv will have live streaming coverage of Game 2 Saturday.
-UC-
Photo by David Moll