A thing that started off so good, ended with heartbreak for the Winnipeg Wesmen Sunday night. 

The Wesmen men's basketball team built up an 18-point first-half lead but ultimately couldn't hold off the Victoria Vikes, suffering a 96-91 defeat in the Canada West conference championship game at the Investors Group Athletic Centre. 

It was the second straight year the Wesmen dropped the conference title game to Victoria, but this time it had an extra dose of hurt given the partisan crowd at a neutral site that essentially became Winnipeg's home court with nearly 1,300 in attendance pulling for another upset.

Shawn Maranan was spectacular for a second straight night scoring a career-high 34 points, 20 in the first half, while adding 10 assists.

The Wesmen built up an 18-point first-quarter lead and took a 35-19 edge into the second, but the Vikes slowly chipped away. Victoria trimmed Winnipeg's lead to 52-46 on a Renoldo Robinson buzzer beater heading into half.

While Winnipeg did an admirable job on Canada West player of the year Diego Maffia, who had 18 points on 20 shots and was 2-for-9 from three, it was Robinson who routinely provided the back-breakers. The top scorer in the conference off the bench, Robinson finished with 33 points including 12 each in the second and third quarters when the Vikes did their greatest damage. 

The Wesmen fell behind by seven midway through the fourth quarter and had one last mini run left, pulling to 85-84 down on a Maranan runner with three minutes left. But the Vikes got a Shadyn Smid score on the next possession and Elias Ralph, who was 0-for-7 from three at the time, knocked down a triple to stretch the lead back to six with under two to play, a dagger that essentially quashed the Wesmen hopes. 

The Wesmen, who qualified for their second straight national tournament with an upset of Calgary on Saturday, got another splendid effort from guard Malachi Alexander, who scored a career-high 23 points while adding seven rebounds and three steals.  

Mikhail Mikhailov had 10 points and 14 rebounds. 

The Wesmen hit seven of 14 threes in the first half but went just 5 of 18 the rest of the way. 

Smid finished with 14 on 7-for-8 shooting and Ralph added 10 as the Vikes, the No. 1-ranked team in the country, likely solidified themselves as the Final 8's top seed for the tournament that goes March 8-10 in Quebec City. 

The No. 6-ranked Wesmen will await their slotting in the eight-team field when seedings are announced March 3.