WINDSOR, ON – Sports – (With files from Scott Morrison) The Lakehead Thunderwolves improved in the areas needed from Friday night and also continued to display a hot hand from the outside in beating the tough Windsor Lancers. With top defensive player Greg Carter battling foul trouble the entire game and Venzal Russell cold from the field, LU’s other starters and bench stepped up for the second night in a row.
Ben Johnson was on fire from the outside knocking down 9-12 from 3pt land to finish with a weekend high of 29 points in 37 minutes. Joseph Jones and Matthew Schmidt also made major contributions off the bench as Jones had 14 points and a big 7 rebounds (3 offensive) and Schmidt hit two big threes during a second half Lakehead run. Yoosrie Salhia was also strong for LU battling much bigger bodies in the paint to score 14 points and add 8 rebounds.
The game was tight as Lakehead won the first 3 quarters, by 1, 4 and 6 respectively before Windsor edged LU in the deciding 4th.
LU improved on last night’s turnover total by registering only 11 compared to twice that on Friday. Windsor still won the O rebounding battle grabbing 14 to LU’s 9 but only 6 of Windsor’s second chances came after the 1st quarter. Lakehead was 16-32 from downtown while Windsor was 7-22. At the FT line Windsor was 12-14 to Lakehead’s 5-9.
Windsor was led by Lien Phillip who recorded a 17 point 11 rebound double-double (again) and Evan Matthews who had a strong weekend totalling 16 and 6 in game two. Hamilton’s Ryan Christie was a beast on the glass grabbing 11 boards, 3 offensive.
Coach Morrison speaking on the win, “We would be fools to court the notion that this was not a very big weekend for us. It is not easy to beat a top-ten calibre team like Windsor once in their house let alone twice. However we would also be fools if we thought that we won any kind of championship here tonight. We have 6 tough games left, and while this weekend has helped our cause we have much work left to do. Waterloo is now our focus and our goals are to recover and put in a great week of prep.”