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Huskies defeat Dinos by a dozen in Game 1 Game 2 goes Saturday night, 7:00 pm tip-off at the PAC
Saskatoon, Sask. - Up nine at the half, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies were determined not to let the University of Calgary Dinos get back into the game. Saskatchewan outscored Calgary 35-13 in a run during the first ten minutes of the second half, and went on to a 91-79 victory Friday night in Game 1 of the Central Division Semi-Final.
Saskatchewan (19-18, 13-9 Canada West) leads the best-of three series 1-0 over Calgary (17-20, 11-11). Game 2 is set for 7:00 pm Saturday night at the Physical Activity Complex.
The Huskies went on an 11-0 run, bookended by two Rejean Chabot three-pointers, to take a 20-10 lead with 12:34 to play. Kyle Grant scored 15 first half points, and also grabbed seven boards and dished out six assists as the Huskies built a 42-33 lead at the break. The Huskies also outrebounded the Dinos 21-14 in the first frame. Dinos guard Brian Finniss had 15 first half points, and was 3-3 from downtown.
After a Ross Bekkering dunk to open the second half, the Huskies went on their 35-13 run. The ten minute period of play featured Huskie runs of 10-0 and 12-0. The latter was started by a Kyle Grant feed to Andrew Spagrud for a dunk, and ended with another Grant assist to Kalem Edlund for a backdoor layup. That put the Huskies up 77-48, their largest lead of the night.
The Dinos would go on an 11-0 run over three minutes to cut the lead to 87-75 with 2:16 remaining, but that's as close as they would get.
After scoring only seven points in the first half, Spagrud exploded for 28 in the second frame, finishing with a game-high 35. He was 9-10 from the floor, and 10-13 from the free throw line as the Huskies shot 73.7% from the field in the second half. Spagrud had nine rebounds.
Grant finished one rebound shy of the first triple-double performance in Huskie history. He scored 28 points, dished out 10 assists and grabbed nine boards. Chabot had 10 points and three steals. Clint Unsworth had six points, all in the first half, and five rebounds.
Finniss finished with a team-high 21 points on 8-10 shooting. Bekkering had 19 points and five blocked shots. Cody Darrah added 12 points. Fifth-year senior Josh Feist had four points and seven assists before fouling out with just under a minute to play. Robbie Sihota failed to score after suffering an ankle injury only thirty seconds into the game. He returned but only played 13 minutes.
Saskatchewan played without starting point guard Jordan Harbidge, who sprained an ankle in practice on Wednesday. He is listed as day-to-day. Calgary was without guard Jeremy Odland, who suffered a broken jaw in last Saturday night's game at Calgary. He is out for the remainder of the season.
The Huskies shot 54.7% from the floor for the game, while the Dinos shot 49.1%. The Huskies outrebounded the Dinos 36-26. The Dinos were 10-18 from beyond the arc, while the Huskies were 6-13. The Huskies were 27-37 from the charity stripe compared to the Dinos' 13-20.
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