November 1 - Fifth year forward Matt Opalko drained the game winning three pointer at the buzzer to give the Winnipeg Wesmen a dramatic 73-72 victory over the Manitoba Bisons Thursday night in front of 1529 spectators at the Duckworth Centre Thursday night. The regular season opening victory gives Winnipeg a record of 1-0 while Manitoba sits at 0-1 in the very early stages of the Canada West regular season.

Fifth year guard Erfan Nasajpour had a team high 18 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Isaac Ansah led Manitoba with a game high 28 points.

The Bisons controlled the play in the first half leading 18-9 after the opening quarter and going to the locker room at halftime with a 36-28 lead.

Winnipeg went a 9-2 run to open up the second half and cut the Bison lead to a single point at 38-37. Later in the third quarter Ansah and Darcy Coss, who finished with 19 points including five-three pointers drained back-to-back three pointers to lift manitoba to a 57-52 lead after three quarters.

In the fourth quarter Winnipeg fought back only to see Manitoba answer them back with a basket of their own. The Wesmen were able to grab their first lead of the game (63-62) on a Nasajpour three pointer midway thru the quarter. Coss and Ansah gave Manitoba a six point lead at 72-66 with just over a minute to play only to see the Wesmen storm back with baskets from Nick Lother and Michael Passley's big two pointer with 26 seconds left in the game to set things up for Opalko's big game winning shot.

Nick Lother scored 14 points for the Wesmen, Opalko finished with 12 points. Nasajpour was named the Duckworth Challenge MVP for the Wesmen, and Ansah was named the MVP for the Bisons.

The two teams will meet on Saturday night at the University of Manitoba. Game time is 8:15 p.m.

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