THUNDER BAY – The LU men’s basketball team did not disappoint fans at the Thunderdome Saturday night, thrashing Winnipeg 92-61. It was a great gift for fans to wrap up Lakehead Athletics Homecoming Weekend. From the opening tip, Ben Johnson was taking it to Winnipeg, scoring 12 of LU’s 18 opening quarter points. Although LU trailed 19-18 after ten minutes, they would pick it up in the second frame, outscoring the Wesmen 26-8 in the Q to establish a comfortable halftime lead which would not be threatened.
Ben Johnson would finish with 29 points and 5 rebounds on 8 of 14 shooting (7 of 8 free throws). All Lakehead players would score in this affair, including Kapuskasing Ontario’s very own Nathan Wainwright, who went 4 of 4 from downtown. As a team the Pack shot 41%, compared to Winnipeg’s 32%.
Winnipeg’s leaders were Andrew Cunninham with 12 points and 4 assists and Kelvin Smith with 11 points.
Lakehead coach Scott Morrison was pleased with the improvement over Friday night’s game. “I though we did a better all around job tonight. Offensively we were not perfect but used better ball movement resulting in improved looks. Defensively we did a better job in transition to limit their easy buckets. Lots of work left to do but happy to see good games out of some of our bench and new players.”
Fans also got a gift from Lakehead Thunderwolves sponsor Subway, which was a free 6″ sub voucher, given that Lakehead scored over 85 points. The hoop that pushed the point total over was a Nathan Wainwright triple, which sparked an explosion from the crowd and much jubilation. The ‘free subs for 85+ points’ promotion runs all season long.