For the second consecutive night the University of Regina's men's basketball team played a tight game on the road against a strong Manitoba squad, but for the second straight night the Bisons came away with the victory as the home team held on for a 79-74 win.

The back-and-forth affair saw four tie scores and five lead changes in the fourth quarter alone, but Manitoba pulled ahead for good with a four-point possession that was extended twice by offensive rebounds. That gave Manitoba a 75-72 lead, and after the Bisons got a defensive stop they got another bucket which put them up five with just over 30 seconds to go.

Now 14-2 on the season, Manitoba was led offensively by Keiran Zziwa's 23-point effort. James Wagner added 17 points and 11 rebounds on Saturday, while Risto Zimbakov scored 12 points.

Benjamin Hillis and Brayden Kuski led the Cougars with 17 and 16 points, respectively.

The Cougars fall to 7-9 on the season with the loss. They're now ranked No. 9 in Canada West in RPI, and will likely need to win three of their remaining four games to have a chance at hosting a play-in game. The conference's top four seeds will all receive byes to the quarterfinals, while teams seeded No. 5 through No. 12 will all participate in the play-in round on the Feb. 14 weekend. Those four play-in games will be hosted by teams seeded fifth through eighth, with the winners to join the top four the following weekend.

The Cougars are back at home next weekend to play host to UNBC on Friday and Saturday at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport. They'll then close out Canada West play on Feb. 7 and Feb. 8 at Fraser Valley.