CALGARY – In a wild, roller-coaster affair in the Jack Simpson Gym, the third-ranked University of Calgary Dinos held off a tough Lethbridge Pronghorns squad with a 105-90 win Thursday night to improve to 11-0 in Canada West play.
 
In another meeting indicative of the long, storied rivalry between the two Southern Alberta schools, both teams embarked on big scoring runs as the game see-sawed from a six-point Lethbridge lead in the first quarter to a 19-point Calgary advantage in the second, with the Horns coming all the way back to take a one-point lead in the first minute of the fourth. But the Dinos went on a 13-0 run at that point and held Lethbridge off down the stretch with the Horns in foul trouble to extend their win streak to 34 straight conference games while dropping the Horns to 4-9 on the season heading into Saturday's rematch in Lethbridge.
 
Calgary put up 29 points in both the second and fourth quarters, along the way holding a five-point lead after 10 and a seven-point advantage at halftime. But a 9-0 run for Lethbridge straddling the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth put the Horns on top 77-76 just 59 seconds into the final frame – with seven of those points coming in the first minute of the fourth alone – before a jumper by Mason Foreman put the Dinos ahead for good and sparked Calgary's 13-0 run to put the game away.
 
With Brett Layton earning a double-team from the Lethbridge defence for much of the night, it was Foreman's turn to have a big night offensively for the Dinos, picking up 27 points on 10-of-14 shooting. Jackson Bayles had an efficient night off the bench, hitting his first six attempts from beyond the arc and finishing with 20 points in 18 minutes. Layton still made his presence felt, however, with a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double along with seven blocks.
 
Noah Wharton (14) and Ezoha Santiago (12) joined Foreman, Bayles, and Layton in double digits for Calgary.
 
For the Horns, the offence came from all over the floor with Colton Gibb's 15 points leading the way. Chad Oviatt, Jeff Rodehutskors, and Keanu Funa each chipped in with 14, while Kyle Peterson added 13 – several of which were big shots at key times from three-point land.
 
The two teams face off in Lethbridge Saturday night to wrap up the home-and-home series. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at the 1^st Choice Savings Centre, live on CanadaWest.tv presented by Co-op.
 
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