VICTORIA - #Ryan MacKinnon# got into foul trouble picking up his fourth personal early in the final quarter and was forced to the bench. He returned with a vengeance, scoring eight consecutive points to put the University of Victoria Vikes men's basketballt eam into a double-digit lead en route to a 68-53 victory at McKinnon Gym on Jan. 21.

With the victory, the Vikes improve to 10-7, while the Pronghorns fall further out of the playoff picture and now sit at 5-12.

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MacKinnon had a team-high 17 points including a pair of fourth-quarter three-pointers. One of them was the product of great passing and a nice textbook arc on his first shot after coming back into the game. He drained two shots from the charity stripe and then scored what could arguably be one of the ugliest shots of the night.

"I consider myself a pretty streaky guy," MacKinnon said of his fourth-quarter surge. "That one I got lucky; I got it off the backboard."

His points gave the VIkes a 60-46 lead and they never looked back.

"When you push the lead into double digits it helped us," he said. "We have to come back tomorrow night with the same game plan and do it well."

#Marco Dolcetti# earned 12 points and added four steals in the victory, while #Jeff Cullen# added 13 points and four assists.

"This is a very important weekend for us, we're looking to host a home playoff game," MacKinnon said. "Hopefully we sweep Lethbridge and then we can focus on Brandon and Thompson Rivers."

The Vikes trailed 12-10 after the first quarter, but went on a 17-8 run to open the second quarter and led 31-24 at the half. They outworked the Pronghorns in the fourth quarter and made Lethbridge play for turnovers.

The Vikes host Lethbridge on Jan. 22 at 7 p.m. at McKinnon Gymnasium.