U Sports men: Rams and Dinos meet again, this time in semis

The defending champion Calgary Dinos, seeded second, will square off against the No. 3 Ryerson Rams in Saturday’s semifinals at the U Sports men’s basketball championship — a rematch of last year’s final.

The Dinos, 26-0 this season, wiped out a five-point halftime deficit to beat the Saint Mary’s Huskies 94-78 in Friday’s quarterfinal play. The Dinos outscored the No. 7 Huskies 28-10 in the third quarter to take command.

“I am pleased with how we responded in the second half,” Dinos coach Dan Vanhooren said. “I told our players to be themselves — we were playing too safely. We gave Saint Mary’s too much in the paint and their shooting percentage was too high (in the first half).”

Brett Layton led the Dinos with 23 points, going 10 of 16 from the field. Mambi Diawara — whose layup in the final seconds provided the winning margin in last year’s final — added 17 points and 11 rebounds.

The Rams cruised to an 87-47 victory over No. 6 Concordia after outscoring the Stingers 26-6 in the opening quarter.

Four players scored in double figures for Ryerson, led by War- same Mohamed with 15. He also had nine rebounds. Myles Charvis added 14 points.

Concordia shot just 3 for 36 from three-point range, while Ryerson made 11 of 22.

“We knew they were good (at shooting threes) and we worked really hard — we were locked in for the most part,” Rams coach Roy Rana said.

Later, top-ranked Carleton overpowered eighth-seeded Alberta 100-60. The Ravens, who won seven straight titles before falling in the semis last year, will face No. 5 Dalhousie, which beat No. 4 UBC 74-65.