For all the effort of the University of Calgary men’s basketball team, they finally have something to show for it. While visiting the University of Saskatchewan Huskies this past weekend, the Dinosaurs split the weekend series posting a convincing win on Friday, but dropping Saturday’s game due to poor performance.
"We played well defensively Friday night. We had great effort," said Head Coach Cory Russell in response to his team’s first regular season win. After an impressive 6348 win over the Huskies, the Dinos dropped game two with a disappointing score of 69-64.
"I guess we got complacent. We were a totally different team Saturday than we were Friday," confessed Russell.
So what allowed the Dinos to capture their first win of the season? Solid defence and good rebounding. The Dinos out-rebounded the Huskies 55-27 during Friday’s game.
The loss on Saturday was a completely different story. The Dinos found themselves down 27-7, and by half time the Huskies had already scored 43 points. The U of C squad also committed a whopping 25 turnovers and only five steals: a ratio that is by no means envious.
Certain players on the Dinos stood out against the rest. Chris Harris was a monster on the boards, grabbing 17 rebounds on Friday and nine on Saturday.
"He probably had the most solid weekend," commented Russell. Sean Stetson scored 16 points in Friday’s contest but was fairly quiet on Saturday, putting up only seven points. Other notables include Brad Gallup who scored 23 points in a losing effort on Saturday but didn’t play up to par in Friday’s matchup.
"He [Gallup] didn’t play well Friday. He has to play well in order for us to win," said Russell.
This weekend, the Dinos take on the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns, a team the Dinos have played, and lost to, already. To beat the U of L, the Dinos are going to have to minimize transition opportunities. That means they have to get back on defence and commit as few turnovers as possible. When asked if winning was actually within the realm of possibility, Russell responded: "I always [feel confident] on game day."