Griffins start slowly, get blown out 78-42 by visiting Dinos in home opener

Taylor Cook drives the lane under pressure from two Dinos defenders on Friday night (Eduardo Perez photo).
Taylor Cook drives the lane under pressure from two Dinos defenders on Friday night (Eduardo Perez photo).

Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – The Calgary Dinos built off a dominant opening quarter to manufacture an epic blowout win over the MacEwan Griffins in Canada West men's basketball action on Friday night.

The final score, 78-42, flattered the Griffins after the Dinos – who built a 62-21 lead through three quarters – pulled their starters for large swaths of time.

"They're just a good team," said MacEwan head coach Mike Connolly. "We weren't very good tonight at all. End of story."

With the result, the Griffins fall to 0-3 in the standings, while the Dinos – ranked ninth in U SPORTS – are now 2-1.

MacEwan started slowly and found themselves chasing the game, down 17-3 after the first quarter. At the half, it was 40-15 and essentially in the bag for the visitors, who rested starters and got 12 players into the contest.

"We weren't good, we weren't ready," said Connolly of a nightmare start. "They took us out of our game and we got intimidated and scared until we realized we could start to play.

"When they took off their starters, we started to get comfortable. We just have to build for tomorrow."

If there was a positive, it's that the Griffins outscored the Dinos 21-16 in the fourth quarter.

But Connolly insisted that, overall, this one belongs in the trash.

"Nothing. Nothing to take out of this," he said. "The best thing is to just throw it away."

No Griffins hit double digits as Alex Jap led the team with eight points.

Parker Johnstone led the Dinos with 17 points in just 12 minutes of work off the bench, while Jackson Bayles had 10.

The stat that stands out is field goal shooting percentage as Calgary shot 52.0 per cent to MacEwan's 23.6.

The teams will meet again on Saturday (7 p.m., David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV presented by Co-op).