THUNDER BAY – Sports – The Lakehead University Thunderwolves men’s basketball team came into the Thunderdome already a lock for 1st place in OUA West, but had plenty of work to do in preparation for OUA playoffs. In this contest, the bench players got a healthy dose of court time due to injuries to forwards Yoosrie Salhia, Brendan King and Joseph Nitychoruk. In the end the ‘Wolves would cruise to a 22-point victory, 100-78, after establishing a 26-9 lead after the first quarter.
Ryan Thompson paced the T-Wolves with 24 points (10-17 FG, 2-2 3FG, 2-2 FT), 9 rebounds, a block and a steal. Venzal Russell was next with 22 points, and Matt Schmidt and Ben Johnson rounded out the scoring with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Schmidt also had 7 rebounds in his 3rd game starting in place of the injured Salhia.
Guelph guard Kareem Malcolm had a tidy 21 points on 8-11 shooting (3-3 3FG, 2-2 FT) to go with 3 assists and a steal in 34 minutes of play. Zach Angus and Dan McCarthy were the only other Gryphons in double digits with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
In light of Guelph putting up a solid 78 points, and with one more regular season game remaining tomorrow, Coach Scott Morrison is demanding a complete effort from all 10 guys he has dressed on the bench. “Guelph outplayed us for half of the game [outscored LU 55-43 in the 2nd and 4th Q’s], but we were fortunate to ride our good starts in the first and 3rd to get the win. I was pleased with the effort of our starters tonight including Jones off the bench. After the game we challenged our second unit to raise their level of play tomorrow. We are close to finishing our regular season goals but need to put together a more balanced effort to do so.”
Game time is 8 pm tomorrow.
Women’s 5th year forward Lindsay Druery will be honored in traditional ‘Seniors Night’ fashion at halftime of the men’s game.
Game will be webcast via SSN (www.ssncanada.ca/games) and audio play by play will be broadcast on CILU Radio, 102.7 FM and luradio.ca