Dinos Grab Control of Final Playoff Spot with Victory!
For the second night in a row, the Calgary Dinos went down to the wire with the Lethbridge Pronghorns in Canada West play with a play-off atmosphere. After dropping the Friday game 76-74 in the final seconds in Lethbridge, the Dinos had a must- win here in Calgary Saturday.
Calgary was ahead for the whole first half and nursed a 41-38 lead at the break, but the Pronghorns nosed in front mid-way through the second half. With Lethbridge looking to salt the game away in the final 2 minutes, Cody Darrah stroked a deep three from the top of the arc to put Calgary up by 1. Clutch free throws by Ross Bekkering and Chris Wright, who were 9/10 and 8/10 from the line, gave the Dinos the slimmest of leads. The ‘Horns missed a golden opportunity inside, and Wright’s free throws with 9 seconds left put the game out of reach. Calgary prevailed 76-71 before an enthusiastic crowd of 1700 at the Jack Simpson gym.
Chris, in his ‘Senior night ‘ game finished with 14 pts. and 11 rebounds. The rookie Bekkering had a sparkling performance in dunking and slashing his way to 18 pts. and 11 boards. Darrah (15), Brian Finniss (11), and Robbie Sihota (10) were also in double figures for the home team. Scott MacKinnon and Tim Whitehead had 20 pts. apiece for Lethbridge, who drop to 7-11 for the season . Calgary is now 8-10 and in the driver’s seat for the 3rd and final play-off spot in the Central Division of Canada West with one more weekend of games to be played.
Calgary travels to Saskatoon for games on Saturday and Sunday afternoon - 2:00 pm, while the Pronghorns are at Alberta to finish up their season. Calgary can clinch a play-off berth with one win against the Huskies, while Lethbridge now must take 2 in Alberta to have any chance. For the year, the ‘Horns are 7-3 at home in the ‘Cave’, while losing all 8 road games thus far. Calgary is 5-5 at home and 3-5 on the road. Should the Dinos make the play-offs their opponent will be the Alberta Golden Bears, who sit in 2nd spot behind Saskatchewan, who have clinched 1st place and home court for the Divisional Final. Divisional Semi-Finals are Feb.17-19, and the Final is Feb.24-26. Each Divisional winner and a wild-card team will compete in the Canada West Final Four on the West Coast at the home of the Pacific Division Champion on the 3rd and 4th of March.