By Brad Halasz
The 2008 incarnation of the University of Calgary Dinos men’s basketball squad made their debut this weekend losing to the University of Montana Grizzlies twice in close games during the Battle of the Border tournament at the Jack Simpson Gym Aug. 30-Sept. 1.
The Grizzlies, who play in the Div. 1 NCAA Big Sky Conference, took the lead early in Monday’s noon match-up and never gave it back, although there were times when the Dinos proved they belonged on the same court during the 76-69 loss.
“We’re playing an NCAA Div. 1 team, they’re expecting to come up here and beat us badly, and we were competitive and I think that shows a lot of what we have here,” said Dinos head coach Dan Vanhooren. “If we put four quarters together we can compete with them, we just can’t have any lapses, that’s what hurts us.”
The Grizzlies defence was strong all afternoon, keeping the Dinos to the perimeter where they struggled to find the basket.
Tyler Fidler led the Dinos with 17 points; Henry Bekkering and Robbie Sihota were close behind with 16 points each and Ross Bekkering knotted 12.
“I thought our defence was solid throughout the game and our turnovers were not that bad, we just didn’t execute on offence well enough down the stretch,” said Sihota.
The Dinos fell to the hands of the Grizzlies last Saturday in an 82-72 final in the first contest of the two game series.
With only five practices under their belt leading up the weekend, the Dinos approached the tournament as a learning tool to prepare for the regular season, which gets going Nov. 7.
“The tournament is about getting to know each other, getting a benchmark on what we do well and what we don’t,” said Vanhooren. “The next month and a half is about basic skills, about fitness, about getting in the gym and weight training. There’s all kinds of things that we’re going to be doing over the next six weeks and that doesn’t even include all the on court stuff from a tactical perspective.”
Sihota said that playing a team with a higher skill level will help the team develop their skills for the upcoming season.
“It’s fun to play any tough competition, we learned a lot of things from the weekend, what we need to get better at for the start of the season.”