CALGARY – The assembled faithful in the Jack Simpson Gym held their breath for the better part of the second half, then let out a collective sigh of relief as the Calgary Dinos kept their playoff hopes alive with a 100-91 overtime victory over the Manitoba Bisons Saturday night.
BOX SCORE
It was the first series sweep of the season for Calgary, which posted a 93-81 victory in the opener Friday. Calgary improves to 8-12 on the year, one game behind the Bisons (9-11) for seventh spot in the conference with four games to go. The Dinos also sit one game ahead of 7-13 Fraser Valley, though the Cascades have the softest schedule of the three teams. Two of the three will qualify for the post-season, and the Dinos have some work to do to get there – but the series sweep this weekend was a badly-needed first step.
Manitoba guard Eric Garcia, who had a sparkling 24-point effort on the night, stepped to the free throw line for two shots with 5.4 seconds on the clock in the fourth quarter and the Dinos leading 82-81 with their season in the balance. Following a Manitoba time out, Garcia calmly stroked the first shot through to tie it up, but his second bounced off the back rim. The Bisons still managed to get a three-point attempt up, but
Tyler Fidler grabbed the rebound and held on to force overtime.
In the extra frame, the Dinos benefitted from significant foul trouble for Manitoba and made 15 trips to the line, scoring 11 times. But they attempted just five field goals in the extra period against 15 for Manitoba, so it was still just a four-point game with less than two minutes to play. After
Dustin Reding grabbed a rebound off a missed Garcia jumper at the other end, Fidler found a wide-open
Andrew McGuinness in the corner for Calgary – and the sophomore drained the clutch triple to give the Dinos a seven-point lead to salt the game away.
“We missed a whole bunch of free throws down the stretch and we probably could have put it away in regulation time, but at least we hit them in overtime,” said a relieved Calgary head coach
Dan Vanhooren. “A big shot by McGuinness put us in a position where they had to foul, and it was good to see him step up in crunch time when we needed a big shot.
“Our biggest issue all night was rebounding,” Vanhooren went on. “We got murdered on the glass – 22 offensive rebounds is ridiculous to give up. They outworked us for a good part of the game and deserved to be where they were, so we were fortunate tonight.”
The Bisons hauled down 61 rebounds on the night compared to 48 for Calgary, but the major difference was on the offensive glass. The Dinos managed just six second-chance opportunities, while Manitoba's 22 offensive rebounds allowed them to jack up 92 field goal attempts on the night against just 67 for Calgary.
Still, the Dinos managed to come out on top of a game of attrition that saw all three Bisons posts foul out of the game in the late stages.
The trio of Garcia, Josh Ogden (25 points), and Sean Maxwell (12) made up the lion's share of Manitoba's scoring, with the three combining for 61 of the visitors' 91 points. Calgary countered with another huge night from Fidler, who put up a season-high 29 points while collecting 12 rebounds. He was joined atop the leaderboard by freshman
Matt Letkeman, who finished a brilliant weekend with a career-best 24 points after scoring 18 Friday.
McGuinness (15),
Keenan Milburn (12), and
Youri Anissovets (11) rounded out the double-digit scorers for Calgary.
The Bisons embark on a tough stretch to close the regular season, hosting Trinity Western for a two-game set next week before heading to Regina to face the Cougars. The Dinos' road isn't any easier – Calgary heads to Edmonton for a date with the 14-8 Alberta Golden Bears next weekend before closing the regular season at home against the 16-4 Saskatchewan Huskies. So, while the sweep of the Bisons was vital to his team's playoff chances, Vanhooren wasn't celebrating too much.
“We still have a lot of work to do, and we know that we need to win at least one of our last four,” he said.
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