It was 40 below, and the fans in southern Alberta turned the heat up. 

The University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men's basketball team, desperate to record their first home-court victory of the season, overcame the loss of their leading scorer and a resume of close-game heartbreaks, to score a 77-69 victory over the University of Fraser Valley Cascades Saturday night at 1st Choice Savings Centre.

Kymani Pollard broke out from a quiet night, connecting on a three-pointer with one minute to play and the Horns up two, then adding six points in the tense final moments to finish with 20. The Pronghorns improve to 2-12 in Canada West, while the Cascades drop to 4-8.

The teams battled on near even terms throughout. UFV trailed for much of the first half, but led 33-32 at the break. The intermission helped the home squad regroup, and Shae Gibb struck for six points in the first 2:30 of the third quarter to restore a slim Lethbridge lead. The teams were never separated by more than six points the rest of the way until the final minute.

The Pronghorns appeared up against it when Jack-Henry Fox-Grey drew his fifth and final foul with over five minutes to play and Lethbridge leading 61-59. Fox-Grey, already with 14 points on the night, had been averaging 22 points a game in his past seven starts, and scored 30 the previous night.

Pollard and Gibb, who finished with 16 points, helped the Pronghorns stave off what would have been their seventh single-digit loss of the season. Prior to the weekend, the Pronghorns' previous four games had all been decided by three points or fewer.

Lethbridge came out strong, securing a double-digit lead in the opening five minutes. The Horns were up 14-2, but the Cascades' Dylan Kinley nailed his first of four three-pointers of the half to stop the bleeding, and with two and a half minutes left in the quarter, Kinley hit another trey to make it 14-12. Kinley added two more long-distance bombs in the half that helped UFV hold the one-point lead at the break.

Kinley and Dario Lopez both finished with a game-high 23 points on the night for the Cascades. The Pronghorns were more effective against Lopez down low, after the UFV forward torched them for 41 points the previous night. Fox-Grey had drawn much of the defensive assignment Saturday, but after fouling out, Sebastian Perez came up with a pair of key defensive boards in the final minutes.

Kinley launched 14 three-point tries in the game, hitting five, but the Cascades didn't establish much inside in the first half and never went to the free throw line in the opening 20 minutes.

Behind Gibb's resurgence, Lethbridge held a 53-50 lead through three quarters, highlighted by Pronghorn captain Avery Hutcheson dunking home his first two points of the game with 30 seconds remaining.

One night after UFV erupted for 33 points in the fourth quarter, becoming the first team to hit the century mark against Lethbridge this season, the Pronghorns were able to hold up on defence and finished with a 40-32 edge on the glass.

UFV returns to action Friday, Jan. 19, when they open a weekend series at home against the University of Alberta. It will be the first Cascades' home game since Nov. 17-18 when they swept UBC Okanagan.

The Pronghorns are on the road next weekend to face winless Grant MacEwan.