Box Score LETHBRIDGE – Down 21 points in the second quarter, the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men’s basketball team engineered a roughly 30 point swing to eek out a 95-87 win over the visiting University of Manitoba Bisons Saturday night, boosting them to third spot in the Prairie Division with a record of 9-7.
As usual, the ‘Horns offence balanced on contributions from many of its members, and also, as usual, Airdrie product, Dominyc Coward came up with a double-double, his seventh of the season. Coward led the ‘Horns with 19 points and 12 boards and was mirrored by fellow post, Derek Waldner, who orchestrated a double-double of his own with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Point guard Daryl Cooper dropped 18 and Morgan Duce added another 17.
The Bisons responded with similar numbers: Kurtis Sansregret scored 18, while Kevin Oliver and Yigit Ozsayiner chipped in 17 apiece. Oliver notched his fifth double-double of the year, also pulling down 11 boards.
The Bisons came out of the gates with an obvious intention to avenge Friday night’s loss, shooting a scorching 5-5 from three and 12-16 from the floor en route to a 17-33 advantage after the first frame. The beginning of the second didn’t look much more promising for the ‘Horns, but, down 25-46 with three minutes left to play in the half, a lob to Coward for a lay-in and a kick out by Dallon Martin to Duce for three contributed to a 13-0 ‘Horns run to close out the first half, sending the teams to the locker rooms with a 38-46 differential on the scoreboard.
The ‘Horns continued to chip away at the Bison lead in the third quarter, bringing the score to within one at 52-53, but the Bisons maintained control of the lead and increased it back to six. Showing the confidence and resilience that would be their signature of the match, the ‘Horns whittled their deficit to one with two minutes to play in the stanza when a Niko Kovac jumper gave the ‘Horns their first lead of the game. The Bisons answered, however, with a pair of Xavier Smith free throws to regain the advantage, but the ‘Horns found a way to sway the tenuously hovering momentum back in their favor when Terrence Blake knocked down a huge trey off of a kick-out from Alex Fletcher with 17 seconds left to play in the quarter to put the ‘Horns up 67-65 at the break.
The fourth quarter saw the ‘Horns continue to steadily outscore the Bisons as they had since midway through the second, a couple of key baskets coming from LCI-grad Julian Spearchief-Morris who knocked down a three and a long two inside two minutes to withstand a potential Bison comeback and seal an eight point win.
“We just settled down and played our game,” said Coward. “We knew we were a better team, we just needed to do the things that we know how to do. A lot of it was just bringing energy to the floor and talking on defense and one we got some momentum, the game kind of took care of itself.”
The ‘Horns will try to pack some of that momentum with them to Brandon next weekend as they meet the 5-11 Bobcats on their home turf. The game will tip off at 8 pm and will be webcast on canadawest.tv.
