WINNIPEG – First-year Bison
Ramogi Nyagudi had a career night, and the Manitoba Bisons won the battle on the glass 41-20, holding the visitors to just six offensive rebounds in a physically dominant 95-71 win on Saturday night at IGAC.
Nyagudi poured in a career-high 33 points to lead all scorers (including seven three-pointers), adding eight rebounds in the win. That total included 12 points in eight minutes in the fourth, all on made triples, one night after posting his first double-double as a Bison.
Daren Watts added 25 points and
Cieran O'Hara had 12 boards.
Mason Kraus chipped in a game-high nine assists. MacEwan was paced by 15 points from Diego Presingular.
The win improved Manitoba's record to 10-6, with just one win separating the fifth-place Bisons from second-place Alberta in Canada West's Prairie Division. It's their fourth straight season with ten-plus wins under head coach
Kirby Schepp and tenth overall, the most of any coach in program history.
"We couldn't take MacEwan lightly. We had to put in work and the effort, and that's really what we all put in. It was nothing any different than any other game," said Nyagudi.
"We were able to be physical and tried to sky to get to the ball. Being physical was one of the most important things in this game. One thing coach told us as a group, was that we needed to focus a lot more on owning our guy underneath the basket and trying to get the rebound. That was one thing I was focusing on during the week at practice, which led to my double-double yesterday and eight boards today."
Both teams shot the ball extremely efficiently in the opening quarter. Manitoba opened up a 15-2 lead three minutes in, draining five triples in the quarter while operating at 61 percent efficiency overall.
Watts – who had three triples at the break – and
Brandt Lenz combined for nine of those 15 points, hitting each of Manitoba's first three shots from the perimeter, while Nyagudi got the fans to their feet on the opening possession with a windmill dunk off a
Mason Kraus alley-oop.
But the Griffins pushed back, cutting Manitoba's lead to eight after ten, thanks to four steals, which led to points in transition, including two triples in the final minute from point guard Diego Presingular. One of those was on a fadeaway effort, and he had eight points overall for a MacEwan side that shot 57.1 percent from the field.
The Herd maintained a double digit lead throughout the quarter, refusing to let the visitors get get any closer with a collective effort on the glass that was particularly one-sided.
Manitoba held GMU to two offensive boards, collecting 13 on D while maintaining a variety of possessions on offence as well with 13 offensive rebounds.
Nyagudi and O'Hara helped lead the charge on the glass, combining for 14 rebounds, while Nyagudi had 14 points at the break, missing just one shot from the field in the first quarter-and-a-half. That included two triples, and a contested layup off the glass.
MacEwan cut the Manitoba lead to six at the break thanks in part to a press look on D. They got two steals from Favour Igbinyemi, while Presingular led the way with 13 points at halftime.
The Herd blew the game wide open in the second half, outscoring GMU 51-32.
Rebounding continued to be a major story. Manitoba negated second chance looks on a variety of occasions, while capitalizing on their own opportunities on the glass offensively.
Watts scored five in a row midway through the third, putting in his own rebound during the run, while Nyagudi scooped up multiple rebounds on defence which led to transition points the other way.
He and Watts combined for 41 points entering the fourth – including a dunk from Nyagudi on a Kraus pass – as Manitoba expanded their lead to 18 in the final ten, and over 20 by the end of the contest.
The Herd are back in action next week, taking on Winnipeg in the annual Duckworth Challenge.
