LANGLEY, British Columbia – Trinity Western's Lucas Mannes (Chilliwack, B.C.) scored 39 points and three other Spartans hit double-digits, but it wasn't enough against a sharp-shooting Calgary side as the No. 7-ranked Dinos walked away with a 108-86 win Friday at the Langley Events Centre.

Mannes tallied 23 first half points and had TWU within five points, 45-40, at the break, but a Calgary run late in the third quarter turned the game the visitors' way and, from there, the highly-touted Dinos (11-3) pulled away for a 22-point win. All told, Calgary out-scored TWU (0-11) 37-25 in the third quarter as they picked up their seventh straight win.

The Dinos, who had six players with double-digit point totals were led by Canada West scoring leader Thomas Cooper, who had 23 points. Matt Letkeman had a game-high 11 rebounds to go with his six points.

For the Spartans, Mannes came three points shy of the TWU school record of 42 points, which is held by Jacob Doerksen. Vartan Tanielian (White Rock, B.C.) had 17 points while Sebastian Eliasen (Ballerup, Denmark) had a career-high 14 points and a team-high six rebounds and Kelvin Smith (Los Angeles) had 10 points.

Calgary shot 50.7 (36-71) per cent from the field while TWU was 41.1 (30-73) per cent. The Spartans hit 13 three-pointers on 34 attempts and the Dinos hit 11 on 26 offerings. Calgary had a 51-34 edge on the glass.

"Our guys competed but we didn't play good enough defense in the second half and specifically the third quarter," said Spartans coach Aaron Muhic. "Right now, we don't have enough guts to draw the line in the sand and play really good defense when we need to and it's a problem. It's even harder when we have guys in foul trouble. Hopefully, we can focus and come back and play some defense.

"There were good spots at times. I thought Peter (Spangehl, Surrey, B.C.) was very focused and ready to compete defensively and that's what we needed from him. I liked his attitude and effort. I also thought Kelvin led well when we were facing adversity."

The first quarter saw Mannes put up 15 points for TWU and the Spartans hung with the Dinos, trailing by just three points, 26-23, through 10 minutes.

The second frame was more of the same as Calgary attacked with a balanced offence and TWU relied largely on Mannes. The Spartans guard put up eight more points and TWU trailed 45-40 at halftime.

Early in the third quarter, the game changed. With 6:22 left in the quarter, Calgary held only a slim 55-52 lead. However, that's when the Dinos took over. Calgary broke the game wide open and by the end of the quarter was up 82-65.

From there, the Dinos cruised to the finish line without much of a Spartans push back.

"We play hard, but playing hard isn't good enough," Muhic said. "You have to play well."

The teams will play the rematch Saturday at 7 p.m. at the LEC.

-TW-