 |  |
Fidler, Sihota monsters in Halloween hammering
CALGARY – The University of Calgary Dinos opened Saturday
night’s game with a 23-3 run en route to a 30-point first
quarter, hanging a second consecutive drubbing on the Winnipeg
Wesmen by a 96-55 score at the Jack Simpson Gym.
A night after Ross Bekkering’s monster outing, number 33 on
the home side gave way to the other two of Calgary’s Big
Three up front as Robbie Sihota and Tyler Fidler led the charge for
the Dinos.
On Halloween night, Robbie “Superman” Sihota turned in
his blue cape for a black jersey adorned with number 31 and leapt
over tall defenders with a single bound, scoring eight of the
Dinos’ first 22 points. From there, however, Fidler took over
with one of the best games of his CIS career, finishing just three
assists shy of a triple-double with 24 points, 10 rebounds, and
seven helpers, with a trio of blocked shots to boot. His highlight
was a spectacular put-back dunk off a missed jumper by Jordan
Flagel midway through the second quarter
“Tyler had probably the best game I’ve ever seen him
play tonight,” said Calgary coach Dan Vanhooren. “He
just continues to improve, and he’s only starting his third
year.
“I think the only real difference for us tonight was our free
throw shooting, which was better at 71 per cent. Honestly, though,
that’s still not where we want to be. I’m thrilled with
our rebounding, which gives us all those extra possessions and
additional opportunities. But if you look at it at this point in
the year, this team passes the ball and it doesn’t turn the
ball over. This is a better basketball team than we’ve had
here in a long time, and hopefully we keep playing that
well.”
The Dinos held a whopping 58-33 margin off the glass including 21
offensive rebounds resulting in 12 more field goal tries on the
night than their opponents. Calgary shot the ball well from
outside, draining 10 three-point hoops on 24 tries while the Wesmen
managed just three.
With the drama quickly sucked out of the game in the first two
minutes, Vanhooren was able to get significant playing time for his
entire bench. With nine minutes, Flagel was the only player to
record less than 10 on the floor as nearly a third of the available
court time was taken up by freshmen, led by point guard Jarred
Ogungbemi-Jackson with 21.
“When we get up like that, we have opportunities to test
things out and give youngsters some experiences that they
need,” said Vanhoorn. It was nice to see Patrick Walker out
there again tonight, he has great hands and is a great athlete and
he’s been spectacular for us so far.”
Walker, the heir apparent to the Bekkering-Sihota combination up
front, grabbed five boards and drained six points in his dozen
minutes. Bekkering ran into early foul trouble and spent just 17
minutes on the floor but still managed to score seven and haul in
eight rebounds on the night.
Winnipeg shot just 28 per cent from the field and was held to 13
points or less in three of the four quarters. Peter Lomuro was the
brightest Wesman on the night with 16 points, while Nick Lother
added 14 and Eric Zimmerman 11.
Calgary jumps out to a quick 2-0 start to the 2009-10 season and
will look to improve that further next weekend when they travel to
Winnipeg for a date with the Manitoba Bisons (1-1). Winnipeg (0-2)
also plays in the Manitoba capital next week when they host the
new-look Alberta Golden Bears (2-0) at the Duckworth Centre.
Source:
Ben Matchett
Sports Information Director
University of Calgary Dinos
