Box Score
LETHBRIDGE – Within the first few minutes of the game between the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men’s basketball team and the University of Manitoba Bisons, no one in the stands could have known exactly how the scoring would be distributed, but they did know there was going to be a lot of it.   In a game of mainly transition offense and makeshift defense, the ‘Horns ran to a 103-89 win over the Bisons, bringing their records dead even at 8-7 going into tomorrow night’s game.
 
Local product, Morgan Duce, led all scorers on the night with 22, shooting a blistering 6-10 from three point land and also pulling down five rebounds.  Close behind were former Lethbridge College teammate, Dom Coward with 18 points and 16 boards, logging his seventh double-double of the season and tying him for the most in the conference, and also point guard Daryl Cooper who added 19 points of his own and eight rebounds.  Derek Waldner also proved a huge factor underneath for the ‘Horns, adding 15 points and grabbing nine boards.
 
Fourth-year guard Xavier Smith led the Bisons with 20 on the night and fellow guards Stephan Walton and Kurtis Sansregret each chipped in 15.  Keith Omoerah collected seven rebounds and Kevin Oliver thieved five steals on the losing side.
 
With the teams entering the game with similar records and neck-and-neck in the playoff race, and both favoring a run-and-gun style offence, one would think that the story would be told in momentum shifts and home court advantages, but instead, the statistics sheet tells a more interesting one, with lopsided advantages going to each team in different categories—rebounding being the one to which the ‘Horns attribute their success. 
 
“Our bigs did an awesome job underneath for us tonight,” said Duce.  “We owned the boards and lot of that was Dom and [Waldner].  I think that was a huge factor for us.”  The ‘Horns did own the boards to say the least, outrebounding the Bisons 60-22 and making the Bisons domination in other categories irrelevant.  The wily Bisons had 13 steals as opposed to the ‘Horns two, and forced the ‘Horns into 22 turnovers, while limiting their own to nine.  However, the ‘Horns won the numbers game in shooting percentages, shooting 50 percent from the floor and 41 percent from beyond the arc, compared to Manitoba’s 45 and 21, mainly by capitalizing on good ball movement to create high percentage shots and finding open shooters on the perimeter when the defense collapsed down low. 
           
“We really played as a team tonight,” continued Duce, “and we really tried to look for each other and find the best shot for the team. “ 
 
With third spot in the Prairie division now within reach, the ‘Horns will try complete a sweep of the Bisons tomorrow night, again in the 1^st Choice Savings Centre at 8 pm.  As always, the game will be webcast on canadawest.tv.