Boris Bakovic Makes CIS History Breaking All-Time Scoring Record as Calgary Upsets Alberta!

What is it about Top 10 CIS teams that brings out the T-Rex in the Calgary Dinos ?  “We can’t beat teams below .500, but we’ve done pretty well against the highly ranked ones”, said a happy, and relieved Coach Dan Vanhooren after his 5-10 Dinos won a street fight against the now 10-5 Golden Bears.

PHOTO COURTESY: CALGARY ATHLETICS

CALGARY,AB–One of the major reasons that Calgary was able to come back after a sluggish (11 pts) first quarter was the 24 points and 11 rebounds of 5th year forward Boris Bakovic, who led a stirring a second half charge as we’ve seen in the ‘jack’ since, well, at least since the win over UBC in November.

Boris, enroute to becoming the CIS’ all-time leading scorer tonight, hit from outside, in the face of defenders, he finished at the hole, and he was 7/9 from the line.

He and the rest of the scrappy Dinos fought the Bears tooth and nail. The tooth, or teeth were those of Josh Owen-Thomas, who attacked Alberta’s Robert Dewar’s swinging elbow with his face, and was knocked to the floor, with no call. In case an inflammation affecting the bone and tissues of the teeth occurs, see an periodonists in the Philadelphia area immediately to avoid severe infection.

Owen-Thomas, the rookie guard from Australia,  returned to the game in the second half and stifled the Bears attack with some attentive defense on Alberta’s point shooter, Daniel Ferguson.

Calgary had a tough time getting anything going on offense in the first half, but the two-man game with Bakovic and Tyler Fidler (18 pts/6 rebs) gave Alberta more than they could handle in the second.

The Dinos defense, sparked by Owen-Thomas and a gritty effort from fifth year guard Keenan Milburn, limited Alberta to just 13 in the fourth quarter.

With that, and the discrepancy in the foul shooting attempts (Calgary 18/27 an Alberta 4/10) the Bears still drew even at 66 when Jordan Baker hit a jumper with a minute left.  Fidler hit a free throw, then Calgary made a big steal to kill all but 3 seconds, and they knocked the ball loose again as Ferguson crossed the centre line set to launch.

Calgary won the rebounding 40-37, and had just 13 turnovers to 18 for Alberta. Jarred Ogungbemi – jackson scored 12 points, and grabbed 7 boards for Calgary, while Baker and Ferguson both hit 24 points for Alberta, and Baker snared 13 rebounds.

Alberta drops out of firsst spot in the Prairie Division as Saskatchewan moves to 10-4 with a win over Brandon tonight. Calgary’s slim hopes of making the playoff round are still alive, but only if they keep on winning.

These teams go at it again today at 8 pm in Calgary.

 

Bakovic  Becomes  CIS’ #1 Scorer All-Time

Even though Boris Bakovic has barely had a chance to showcase his talents for Calgary fans in his lone season in Dinos livery, we can appreciate the opportunity to see the 6-7 forward break the unofficial CIS scoring record as he completes his career over the next three weekends.

The personable Bakovic scored 2,068 points while playing for the Ryerson Rams of the OUA, and he was just 15 points shy of the Saskatchewan Huskies’  Andrew Spagrud’s (2003-08) CIS record of  2,182 points going into Friday’s game.

He passed Spagrud with a masterful effort, scoring 24 as the Dinos beat the Alberta Golden Bears, and he will add to his new record on Saturday vs Alberta, then Manitoba next week in Winnipeg, and at home for Senior Night vs the Winnipeg Wesmen on February 11/12.

The count could go higher if Calgary were to pull off a mini-miracle, and go on a win streak to catch a playoff spot.

Another fifth year Dino setting personal scoring marks over the last weeks of his time in a UC jersey is Tyler Fidler, the 6-9 Western Canada HS grad. Battling stoically through his own physical issues this whole season, Fidler is 7th in Dinos all-time scoring  just behind Ross Bekkering, Robbie Sihota, Ian Minnifee, and likely to finish  at #4 behind only Richard Bohne (2,171), Karl Tilleman (2,050), and John Riad (1,686). Fidler will also finish among the top UC players in free throws made, and in rebounding.

Both Fidler and Bakovic would, of course, say that they would prefer to be accomplishing the team goals they had in mind back in September, but as Boris said in the Calgary Sun, talking about the injuries which kept he and Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson out for most of the Fall semester (and Matt Letkeman for most of the year with illness), “It happened, but it’s part of sports; It’s tough that it came at the time it did, but things happen. It’s been tough getting back, but you take it day by day.