Box Score  
 
VANCOUVER – Trailing by two entering the fourth quarter, the No. 5 seed Manitoba Bisons shut the door on any form of upset, out-scoring the No. 12 seed Brandon Bobcats 26-13 in the final ten minutes en route to a 79-68 victory at War Memorial Gym in the Canada West Play-In round.
 
Manitoba moves on to face No. 4 seed, host UBC in the quarterfinals tomorrow at 4 PM CT in a rematch of the same contest hosted by the Herd a year ago.
 
The story of the game was the Herd's trademark defence. Manitoba commanded play on the glass, winning the battle on the boards 47-25. They were particularly dominant in the final ten minutes, scooping up 14 rebounds compared to six for Brandon, while holding the Bobcats to 4-for-13 shooting from the field.
 
A total of 19 of Manitoba's rebounds came from senior Cieran O'Hara, which was a playoff program record, career-high, and the fifth-most in a post-season game in Canada West history, as the Bisons consistently held Brandon to one shot per possession.
 
O'Hara added three steals, while Ramogi Nyagudi also had three, and Manitoba had nine overall, while Mason Kraus, Daren Watts and a vast chunk of other Bisons held Brandon's top two scorers, Sultan Haider Bhatti and Manroop Gill to 10-for-29 shooting from the field.
 
Gill scored four points to start the game for Brandon, but was held to seven over the next 38 minutes, while Haider Bhatti had just four field goals until the final minute of the contest.  
 
Mason Kraus contributed a double-double with 20 points and ten rebounds, with half of his points coming in the second half, and he was particularly effective in containing Haider Bhatti in the fourth. He forced two key turnovers that helped give Manitoba an early lead, and they surged ahead for good thanks to a 14-3 run in the first five minutes.
 
"Being a little shorter than [Haider Bhatti] but more athletic, I was able to pressure him in the full court and make his life difficult dribbling it up, so that when he finally got me in the post., he'd be tired," said Kraus.
 
"He started settling, so that gave us easier opportunities in transition."
 
Haider Bhatti and Gill scored seven points in the first three minutes for Brandon, who opened up an 11-7 lead midway through the opening quarter. But the Bobcats went cold from there, missing nine of their next ten shots, with the Herd smothering their opposition on defence, forcing tough looks throughout.
 
Offensively, Tito Obasoto (14 points overall) provided a spark off the bench for the Bisons, who went into the second up 20-15.
With the Herd struggling from distance (1-for-13 in the first half), Obasoto willed his way into the paint, scoring nine points in just over five minutes, while also collecting four rebounds.
 
One of those rebounds led to his own put-back, giving the Bisons a 14-13 lead with two minutes to go in the opening quarter. A defensive rebound by Obasoto shortly after led to a Brandt Lenz layup in transition.
 
Brandon responded in the second quarter, going on an 11-0 run over four minutes to take a 29-24 lead.
 
Turnovers were a major factor. Manitoba coughed up the basketball three times over a span of four possessions and Brandon capitalized in transition, while Haider Bhatti drained a three to cap the run.
 
Struggling from the land beyond, Manitoba got back into the game with a relentless effort on the glass and their trademark defensive intensity. The Herd held Brandon off the board for the final four minutes of the second quarter, going on a 12-0 run to close out the opening half.
 
In a microcosm of the game overall, O'Hara scooped up two offensive rebounds off missed three-pointers, and Daren Watts picked up another, eventually leading to a Brandt Lenz three to trim Brandon's lead to two.
 
Later on, Ramogi Nyagudi went on a 4-0 run, including a steal that led to a layup, while Kraus got in on the action with a block, which Nyagudi turned into points on a jumper.
 
"We struggled in the game from three. We knew that we needed to be the bigger, stronger team and fight to get inside," said Kraus of the team's collective effort on the glass.
 
"Sometimes there's open threes and you're just not going to make them. We knew the game was about possessions and whoever got more shots up was going to win the game. We knew we had to fight, and Cieran, especially, fought for us today."
 
Going into the break, the Bisons had six steals, two blocks and 22 rebounds (compared to 16 for Brandon). Seventeen of those boards came from the trio of O'Hara, Obasoto and Kraus.
 
Manitoba also recorded 13 points off turnovers, and tallied 13 second-chance points, compared to two for the Bobcats.
 
Trailing 36-29, the Bobcats hit two early threes in the third, and out-scored Manitoba 26-17 in the quarter, capitalizing on 21 Bisons turnovers up to that point. They held the momentum going into the fourth, but that's when Manitoba turned up the intensity.
 
O'Hara continued to scoop up rebounds, tallying eight in the third and five in the fourth, while Kraus, Watts and company forced the Bobcats into difficult shots from bad locations.
 
An O'Hara rebound led to a Nyagudi one-handed dunk, and Manyang Tong got in on the action as well with multiple boards that led to points for Manitoba to put the game away. Watts also enacted his will inside, recording a team-high 11 points in the fourth to seal the deal.