Marcus ISO Moore co-led the Griffins with 15 points on Saturday (Husain Dhooma photo).
Marcus ISO Moore co-led the Griffins with 15 points on Saturday (Husain Dhooma photo).
January 18, 2026

Furious fourth quarter rally falls short as Griffins settle for weekend split with Dinos

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Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON — The MacEwan Griffins rallied, battled and scratched and clawed their way back into the game against the Calgary Dinos, but they just couldn't get on that big enough run to complete the comeback.

One night after an impressive effort led to their first-ever win over Calgary, they didn't quite have enough to record a second win against their provincial rivals as the Dinos pulled out a 80-69 victory on Saturday at the David Atkinson gym. 

"We came in with a game plan that I don't think was executed very well until the second half," said Griffins head coach David Kapinga.

"I thought we were going to close that gap. We were right there, pressuring them really well and our press was working, and they were panicking a little bit, but a little mistake defensively allowed them to get going and get back up on us, and it was hard to come back."

Diego Presingular and Marcus ISO Moore led the Griffins with 15 points each in the loss, while Job Janda recorded eight points and eight rebounds, and Milan Jaksic chipped in with 10 points, as MacEwan fell to 3-11 this season.

The Dinos had four players reach double figures, led by Mrigendra Dhaliwal's 20-point effort. Daniels Baumanis scored 17 points and hauled in seven rebounds, while Hayden Franson tallied 13 points and eight rebounds as Calgary improved to 8-6.

MacEwan fell behind 8-0 early, and, while they cut into the lead, the Dinos were able to hold a 27-16 advantage after the first quarter, putting the Griffins in a bit of a hole after the opening 10 minutes.

MacEwan was able to cut Calgary's lead to 29-24 after Dami Osuma scooped up an offensive board and bucket — but the Dinos went on a 14-7 run in the second quarter to give them a 14-point lead at the half.

The trio of Presingular, Janda and ISO Moore kept the Griffins going in the second half. Kapinga also singled out the all-around effort from Jaksic, who was a force on the defensive side of the ball, while also helping to stabilize the team offensively.

ISO Moore hit a nice jumper and Khushal Shukla nailed a three from distance to keep pace with the Dinos, who held a 64-49 lead going into the fourth.

Presingular started hot in the fourth quarter hitting an off-balance floater and then went to the bucket and drew contact and knocked down two free throws to cut into Calgary's lead.

A strong bucket from Janda and a free throw from ISO Moore cut Calgary's lead to five and MacEwan had all the momentum, but the Dinos' experience didn't allow them to falter and they had no plans to give up the lead at all.

"I'm proud of my guys. They didn't give up, and they did a good job fighting. Their lead could've easily gone to 30, but it went the other way for us, so I'm happy with that, but we have to make sure we have less variance during out play," said Kapinga, who was facing off against his former coach that he won a U SPORTS national championship with in 2018.

The Griffins outscored Calgary 20-16 in the fourth quarter, but after they made it a two-possession game, Dhaliwal's back-to-back buckets extended the Dinos lead to nine and it was just a little too much to overcome.

"Coach Dan (Vanhooren) did a great job scouting what we did yesterday and how we got them in trouble, and prepared their guys on some of the stuff we were going to do to them defensively. It worked really well for them," said Kapinga. 

Despite the loss, Kapinga praised his team's compete and will this weekend in earning a weekend split against one of the top teams in the country.

"A lot of this is about what we can control. About being aggressive, being confident and executing game plans. It's all us. That's what I care about… creating a habit of what we can control and how we solve the problem," said Kapinga.

"I thought the first half, we created problems for ourselves, and the second half, we solved problems for ourselves, and I was proud of how we responded in the second half today."

MacEwan will be on the road for the next two weekends. They will visit the Manitoba Bisons Jan. 24-25 and then the Brandon Bobcats Jan. 30-31.