WINNIPEG – In a men's basketball game that had two of the hottest teams in Canada West square off, the Manitoba Bisons defeated the Winnipeg Wesmen by a 79-65 margin on Friday, February 5 at Investors Group Athletic Centre (U of Manitoba campus) and extinguished the Wesmen eight game conference win streak. With the home win, Manitoba has extended their conference winning streak to four games.

In addition, the 25th annual Duckworth Challenge (University of Manitoba Bisons versus University of Winnipeg Wesmen in women's soccer, both basketball teams and both volleyball teams in one season) was captured by Manitoba with a 3-2 margin with the 79-65 victory.

Manitoba is now 12-5 while Winnipeg drops to 9-6 in conference standings. The last win by Manitoba at home over Winnipeg was Feb. 13/14 (W 70-67) as part of 23rd Duckworth Challenge. The top seven teams from the Pioneer Division and the top three teams from Explorer Division qualify for the playoffs.

The Bisons took control of the game from the on-set as they jumped out to a six point lead and push the lead to 13 with a 27-14 lead after the first as AJ Basi knocked down four three pointers in a row in the first ten minutes. Manitoba continued to increase the lead while Wesmen Jamar Farley continued to score and reduce the home lead to only 11 at the half, 49-38.

After leading 62-47 after three with Winnipeg only scoring nine points in the third, the Bisons had an advantage of up to 19 points before the visitors pushed back one more time early in the fourth with a three from Farley, Jelena Pryce lay-up, dunk by Denzel Lynch-Blair and three pointer by Blair to narrow the lead to nine points with still 7:40 left.

That is when Manitoba started to milk the clock and received more timely three from Basi, layup by Keith Omoerah and a jumper by Malik Irwin to push the lead back to 16 and the hosts cruised from there to a 79-65 victory.

For Manitoba, co-captain AJ Basi had a game-high 23 points while Keith Omoerah added 17 points and nine rebounds plus Ilarion Bonhomme returned from injury and registered 12 points in the win.

Winnipeg was led by Denzel Lynch-Blair with 20 points and William Sesay had a double-double with 11 rebounds and ten points and Jelane Pryce had 13 points in the losing cause.

The Duckworth Challenge Player of the Game was Jamar Farley (Winnipeg) and AJ Basi (Manitoba).

Both teams play against each other again at Winnipeg on Saturday, February 6 with tip-off at 7 p.m. CT.

SCORING BY QUARTER

MAN: 27-24-9-18: 79

WPG: 14-24-9-18: 65

SCORING LEADERS

MAN: AJ Basi (23), Keith Omoerah (17), Ilarion Bonhomme (12) 

WPG: Denzel Lynch-Blair (20), Jelane Pryce (13), William Sesay, Marcello Kambola (10)

ASSIST LEADERS

MAN: Keith Omoerah (5), Ilarion Bonhomme (3) three players (2)

WPG: Denzel Lynch-Blair (4), Jelane Pryce (2)

REBOUND LEADERS

MAN: Keith Omoerah (9), Justus Alleyn (8), Wyatt Anders (7) 

WPG: Ryan Oirbans (12), William Sesay (11) Denzel Lynch-Blair (5)

Duckworth Challenge Notes: Earlier in the 25th annual Duckworth Challenge, in women's soccer on Saturday. October 10, 2015, Manitoba won 1-0 on the road. On Thursday, February 4 at Winnipeg, Winnipeg won 3-0 (25-23, 25-10, 26-24) in women's volleyball. Manitoba was victorious 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 25-17) in men's volleyball. The women's basketball result had Winnipeg 69-64 win at Manitoba on Friday, February 5. Prior to this year, Manitoba had won three of the last five men's basketball games during the Duckworth Challenge.