It has oft been said that successful teams are at their best when dealing with adversity. If this is in fact true, the Dinos gave their hometown fans hope Sat., Jan. 19, with a solid victory to avenge a tough loss the night before.
Friday evening saw a streaky Dinos team stumble to an 86–81 loss at the hands of the visiting University of Saskatchewan Huskies. A poor shooting performance by Whit Hornsberger, who took 26 of his team’s 68 field goal attempts and hit only six of them, was indicative of the boys’ fortunes. Despite a late charge with Hornsberger on the bench to make the game close, the Dinos couldn’t close it out.
Saturday saw the star shooting guard regain his form, as he scored 36 points on 11 of 17 shooting while going a perfect 11 of 11 from the line en route to a 94–86 Dinos triumph. Saturday’s production wasn’t as balanced as it has been in other Dinos victories this season, but Andy Strodeur stepped it up, scoring 25 and adding 14 boards to complement Hornsberger’s offensive outburst.
The biggest difference on Saturday wasn’t Hornberger as much as it was the Dinos’ ability to get to the line. After only managing 14 points from the charity stripe Friday, the hometown boys delighted fans at the Jack Simpson Gymnasium Saturday by more than doubling their paltry total, scoring 32 of their 94 points from the free throw line.
Another weekend split leaves the Dinos at 5–9 and in a four way tie for seventh place in the Canada West conference and in great position to make a push for a playoff spot as the schedule winds down. Heading north to face the 13–1 University of Alberta Golden Bears,who happen to be ranked first in the nation,the Dinos will have to bring their "A" game to come home happy. At least they can be confident in the knowledge that the one Golden Bears loss was also the Dinos home season opener.