By Sheri Lamb
WINNIPEG — The man from Down Under led the Winnipeg Wesmen men's basketball team to an exciting 79-70 victory Saturday night and a split in their weekend doubleheader against the visiting Lethbridge Pronghorns inside the David F. Anderson Gymnasium at the Duckworth Centre.
Wesmen third-year forward Ryan Oirbans had a game-high 20 points, 12 rebounds to help keep his team's quest for a home playoff date, and for the playoffs, alive after the Pronghorns won Friday's game.
Wesmen head coach Mike Raimbault said after Oirbans was forced to miss several minutes in the second quarter the Melbourne, Australia product returned to the floor hungry for a win.
"We rely heavily on him for sure and he got into some foul trouble in the second quarter and the guys came in off the bench, Nate Johnson had some good minutes off the bench to help us build a little bit of a lead when he was in foul trouble and when he got back on the floor he did some really good things," said Raimbault.
Unlike Friday night when the Wesmen had an insurmountable 10-point deficit to make up after the first quarter, the home side trailed by only two points (15-13) after the opening 10 minutes in the second game of the weekend doubleheader.
"I thought maybe the tempo of the game was a little bit more in our favour," said Raimbault. "They play a particular style and I thought last night they dictated the tempo more than we did."
The Pronghorns lead vanished early in the second quarter as third-year forward Ryan Oirbans tied the game and Denzel Lynch-Blair had the hot hand for the Wesmen in the quarter as he led his team to a 33-25 advantage at the half. Lynch-Blair, a second-year guard, had 10 points, three boards for the Wesmen in the first half, and Oirbans had six and seven.
Brandon Brine led the Pronghorns with seven points, while second-year forward Zac Overwater had five points and third-year guard Dejon Burdeaux had six boards in the first half.
In the third quarter, the Wesmen maintained their lead at first, but the Pronghorns fought back to close within two points late in the quarter, which had Wesmen coach Mike Raimbault signalling for a timeout to address his troops. The timeout helped regroup the Wesmen and slowed the Pronghorns momentum and the home side regained some of its advantage to lead 51-45 at the half.
The Pronghorns chipped away at the Wesmen lead in the fourth quarter and eventually tied the game at 64-64 with less than four minutes to play. Winnipeg regained a five-point lead and were able to hold off the Pronghorns when they hit their free throws in the final minute.
"Every win you can get in the conference is obviously a big one, especially after us not having the strongest of performances [Friday]," said Raimbault. "We're trying to make adjustments from night to night and I was happy to some of the things come to fruition."
In addition to Oirbans the Wesmen had three other players in double-digit points, Lynch-Blair (15), Jelane Pryce (17, plus nine boards) and William Sesay (15). The Pronghorns were led by their own Australian Brine with 19 points, 10 boards and Burdeaux with 12 points, 10 rebounds.
Prior to the start of the game the Wesmen honoured fifth-year forward Jelane Pryce for his contributions to the team as he prepares to graduate with a degree in psychology in the spring. The Wesmen also recognized the Pronghorns three fifth-year players, Brandon Brine, Jared Baker and Rob Olson.
"He's a versatile guy," said Raimbault about his graduating player. "We ask him to do a lot of different things and teams spend a lot of time concentrating on how they're going to game plan for him and at times I think maybe his numbers aren't as high as they could be, but he's here for his teammates which is what we would like him to do."
The Wesmen wrap up the regular season next weekend with a trip to Vancouver to take on the UBC Thunderbirds.