WINNIPEG – Playing in his final Duckworth Challenge game on home court, senior guard Mason Kraus delivered the knockout blow on Thursday night at IGAC, hitting what turned out to be the eventual game-winning shot with 2:22 to go in a 90-85 Bisons win over nationally ranked Winnipeg in front of a capacity crowd.
 
Kraus' triple was the seventh and final lead change in the contest, giving the hosts an 85-83 lead, one possession after Malachi Alexander had given the Wesmen back the lead at 83-82. Manitoba out-scored Winnipeg 5-2 the rest of the way, including an insurance mid-range jumper from Ramogi Nyagudi with 24 seconds left.
 
Manitoba improved to 11-6 on the year, while Winnipeg fell to 13-4, but remain as the No. 1 seed in Canada West.
 
Winnipeg led by as much as nine in the third, but the hosts flipped the script in the fourth, going 8-for-13 from the field, compared to 6-for-24 for the Wesmen, with three of those makes coming off Jaro triples.
 
Kraus and Nyagudi combined for 39 points for Manitoba, 14 of which came in the fourth, ten from Kraus, including two clutch threes.
 
"I always come into the game with the same mindset, only difference is the crowd. The crowd was a little bit different. It reminded me of my last game back at St. Paul's, with all the seats being filled," said Nyagudi, a Crusaders alum.
 
"At the end of the day I'm just grateful to be in a position like this, to play in a game this big."
 
After starting the game 0-for-9 from the line, Kraus firmly responded in the second half, finishing the contest with a team-leading 23 points – 19 coming in the final two quarters. Kraus added ten assists, while Nyagudi put up 17 points, along with a career-high five blocks and four steals.
 
"Once my threes starting going in, I started to get into a rhythm and starting picking it up at the end. At the end we just wanted it more," said Kraus.
 
"We started fighting. The whole game we had more fouls, but at the end the refs just let us play. We were the more physical team at the end."
 
Five different Bisons finished in double figures overall, with Daren Watts pouring in 14, Tito Obasoto adding 12 and Taven Vigilance racking up ten including a highlight-reel dunk that brought the crowd to their feet.
 
Kato Jaro was lethal for Winnipeg, finishing with a game-high 31 points including five threes on nine attempts, while playing 39 of a possible 40 minutes. Elijah Mensah added a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds.
 
With the win, Manitoba tied the Duckworth Challenge 1-1 after the Wesmen women beat Manitoba by two to start the night. Both teams play again on Saturday at 3 pm to conclude the basketball portion of the challenge, while the program's volleyball teams start their portion tomorrow at Winnipeg.
 
It was a collective effort in the first from the Herd, with seven different players recording a bucket, as the Bisons entered the second up 28-20.
 
The key shift came three minutes in, as the hosts went on a 16-4 run.
 
Winnipeg recorded the first two buckets, both from Donald Stewart on an inside take where he beat two Bisons, followed by a step-back double, but the hosts had the answer.
 
A Nyagudi rebound and put-back tied the contest at four, and Manitoba took the lead from there after a Nyagudi steal that led to a Kraus layup in transition.
 
Nyagudi scored four in a row at one point and led all Bisons with eight points and two steals after one, while Obasoto came off the bench to tally six points and a steal.
 
Obasoto showed tremendous hustle throughout the first, including an impressive sequence where he scored on a step-back jumper and then sprinted across the floor to steal the ball away from Jaro, leading to another Bisons bucket.
 
The Wesmen out-scored Manitoba 24-11 in the second quarter, entering the break up by five thanks to an enormous run over four minutes. Jaro led the charge on both ends, forcing two steals with smothering man defence, adding two assists and draining ten points.
 
Jaro scored five points within a minute span halfway through the quarter, including a contested corner three, and he facilitated multiple transition buckets to Mensah, who had 13 points at the break.
 
Manitoba trailed by as much as eight, but cut the deficit thanks to a Kraus layup in transition and am Obasoto corner three, both in the final minute. Obasoto led all Bisons with 11 points at halftime.
 
Both team's trademark pace was on display in the third quarter. The two sides traded a variety of buckets in transition while hitting clutch shots throughout. Winnipeg shot 55 percent from the field while Manitoba shot 50 percent as the Wesmen led 69-65 entering the final ten minutes.
 
The lead changed five times in the fourth. Jaro sunk back-to-back threes during the swing of momentum, but the Wesmen sunk just one shot in the final two minutes, while Manitoba hit four of their last five shots, including Kraus' go-ahead three.
 
"We just started to execute. Throughout the game we started to pressure Kato and he made a few mistakes at the end," said Kraus.
"He had a great game, but you could just see they started to crumble a bit at the end. We capitalized. We executed our game plan and kept pushing forward."
 
Cieran O'Hara was key in limiting the Wesmen during the closing two minutes, with three massive rebounds (13 overall), while Nyagudi had two blocks and a steal, along with a massive rebound that led to his jumper to give Manitoba a five-point cushion to seal the deal.
 
"I can't lie, I wasn't thinking. It just happened. One thing I had in my mind was to just rebound and make sure I made the right play," added Nyagudi.
 
"That's really all that mattered. [Kraus] yelled shoot it [on the jumper], and it went in."