WATERLOO – The Lakehead University Thunderwolves Men’s team was out-hustled when it mattered most, and lost 79-65 to the Waterloo Warriors on Friday evening. Lakehead put themselves in a hole early, down 8-0 to begin the game. They managed to battle back as the game progressed, but were out-scored 27-11 in the fourth quarter, and thus surrendered the win and precious 2 points in the OUA West standings to the Warriors.
Lakehead got scoring from Jamie Searle with 18 and Venzal Russell with16. Yoosrie Salhia led all rebounders with 13. For Waterloo, Tim Rossy did the most damage, dropping 26 points and collecting 7 rebounds, while as a team Waterloo shot close to 50%. This was contrasted sharply by Lakehead’s uncharacteristically inept 31%.
To turn things around tomorrow, coach Scott Morrison insists that his troops slow down the Waterloo transition offense tomorrow. “Waterloo out-played us tonight especially in transition. They beat us down the floor for 40 minutes and when we did get back and set on D, we allowed middle penetration like it was going out of style. Credit to the Waterloo guards for pushing the ball consistently and drawing help early in their offense to create good looks for their bigs. We knew Rossy was going to be a very tough match-up, and he was…. We are going to have to come up with a gameplan to contain him as well as find the intensity to do a better job slowing down Waterloo’s transition.”
Gameplay resumes tomorrow, with the women at 6 and the men at 8pm. Games can be watched on the Streaming Sports Network, at www.ssncanada.ca/games