Shawn Maranan added another riveting chapter to the Wesmen-Bisons rivalry Friday night.
Maranan's four-point play with less than a minute remaining turned the game on its head and lifted the Winnipeg men's basketball team to a 62-60 victory at the Investors Group Athletic Centre.Â
With 37 seconds left, Maranan hit a step-back three to tie the game at 60 and was fouled by Daren Watts. His free throw gave Winnipeg the lead back and
Lamar Everd tacked on another free throw on the next possession when the Bisons were forced to foul.Â
Everd missed the back end of the two free throws and
Donald Stewart secured a rebound and
Ryan Luke was eventually fouled giving the Wesmen two more shots. But Luke missed both with 11 seconds left and the Wesmen had to survive one last possession. Mason Kraus' fall-away three missed and the Wesmen posted their sixth straight win.Â
Maranan scored 11 of his game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter, willing the Wesmen back in a game where they trailed by as many as 10.Â
Winnipeg found itself behind by five with 7:27 to go, but a 10-2 run over the next four-plus minutes tipped the game back in its favour.
It was a defensive struggle for most of the night: Winnipeg shot 32.4 percent from the field and the Bisons shot 32.3.
Everd added 13 points and six rebounds, and Donald Stewart grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.Â
Kraus's 18 points paced the Bisons, who also got 15 from Watts.Â