WINNIPEG – A 13-0 run over the final seven minutes of the second quarter helped propel the Manitoba Bisons to a 77-62 win over the Lethbridge Pronghorns on Saturday night at IGAC.
 
Manitoba improved to 6-1 with the win, and have a chance to hand first-place, cross town rival Winnipeg their first loss of the season on Thursday night. Lethbridge fell to 5-3, as the Bisons surged ahead of them for third in Canada West's Prairie Division.
 
Nine of Manitoba's 13 points in the 13-0 outburst came from 6'7" sharpshooter Barac Thon, a product of Kelvin High School who debuted with the Herd last year after spending the prior few seasons in California.
 
All nine of Thon's points came from distance, as he set a regular season U SPORTS career high while playing in a career-high 12 minutes off the bench.
 
Thon's efforts helped the Bisons surge to a 38-22 lead, and Lethbridge never got closer than 15 from there.
 
"It was definitely good for my confidence tonight, catching my flow. You just never when your minutes are coming, it's about staying engaged in the game and being ready to go," said Thon.
 
"It's a lot easier said than done. It's really hard to stay in the flow of things when you don't know where you're going to get your flow at. It's good that I got my shot today, and I hope to keep it going."
 
A storyline all weekend was the depth of both rosters. Lethbridge came into the weekend series with 11 players having made a start at the U SPORTS level, and head coach Kenny Otieno used his bench often.
 
Ten different Pronghorns played in at least nine minutes on Saturday, with Sebastien Perez, Avery Hutcheson, Jaxen Perrett and Brady Baines combining for 22 of Lethbridge's 27 bench points.
 
But Manitoba one-upped their opposition, getting a combined 32 points from their bench.
 
Along with Thon, 6'6" true freshman Taven Vigilance scored a career-high 11 points, playing in a personal best 25 minutes, while Tito Obasoto scored five points and had 19 over the weekend, and Samuel Jensen contributed seven points in a career-high 20 minutes.
 
Vigilance put down three emphatic dunks, while adding two steals and five rebounds, and Jensen splashed two catch and shoot threes, something he's known for.
 
"Just sticking to the principles in the game plan for us was the biggest thing," added Thon.
 
"Knowing what we do well, and leaning on that. Sharing the ball was big for us. Making the extra passes, the effort plays and honestly just energy. Especially as role players we have to come in and bring a whole ton of energy to give us a different look and feel. That can look like a whole bunch of different things, it can look like hitting threes, offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, steals, blocked shots, a good defensive play, literally everything, just giving our guys a different look when we may be stagnant. Role players, especially for our team are really, really important, coming in and providing that energy wherever it is."
 
Lethbridge got a combined 29 points from their two leading scorers, Angelo Mbituyimana, and Jack-Henry Fox-Grey, but 11 of Mbituyimana's 13 came in the final ten minutes, as Manitoba's collective effort defensively helped stymy him for most of the night.
 
Starters Mason Kraus and Manyang Tong combined for six steals, and the Herd collected ten total, right on their average per game, which ranks second in Canada West. Cieran O'Hara collected a team-high ten rebounds, and is third in Canada West, with 9.7 per game.