STOUT, WI – (With files from Layne Pitt) Sports – The Lakehead University men’s Thunderwolves basketball team escaped by 3 versus the U-Wisconsin-Stout team on Friday evening, 70-67. LU was down 30-29 at the half and trailed 54-46 with 8 and a half minutes to play. From there Lakehead got some momentum from a likely source, Anthony McIntosh (Ottawa, ON), who sparked the final run with a blocked shot. Following that, some big time 3-pointers by Brendan King (Petawawa, ON), Joe Jones (Washington, DC) and Nate Wainwright (Kapuskasing, ON) helped the Thunderwolves escape with the win. This back and forth affair featured 13 lead changes, 11 of which occurred in the 2nd half. In the final stretch, some timely free throw shooting by Joe Jones (7-10 FT) secured the win for Lakehead.
LU traveled with only 10 players and were missing starters Ryan Thomson and Yoosrie Salhia who stayed home with injuries.
Venzal Russell (Detroit, MI) and Brendan King each clocked 16 points on the night, while Steve Pax had 16 for UW- Stout. The second half featured a battle between Pax and King, who had 14 points apiece in the second half.
Coach Scott Morrison was dismissive of any notion that his ‘team’ earned this win. “I would be lying if I said I was happy with our play tonight. We were unfocused to start the game and missed early opportunities that we could have used later with the score tight. Our vets have to regain the attitude we had last season when we set out to be the best ‘team’ on the court and to execute our game plan each night… Our young guys have to learn how much focus is needed to bring one’s best play to the court come game time. Until we improve our approach we are kidding ourselves thinking we have a shot in the OUA.”
The men play tomorrow at Hamline University in St Paul at 7 pm (Central).