THUNDER BAY – Sports – The exhibition season continues for Lakehead’s basketball programs over the Thanksgiving weekend, with men’s basketball entertaining the Winnipeg Wesmen at home and the women in Winnipeg at the BOB FM Shootout.
Men’s Basketball
The men’s basketball team’s last home games of their pre-season schedule will happen Thursday and Friday evening versus the Winnipeg Wesmen. The T-Wolves took both games from the Wesmen the last time they played (Homecoming 2011) by scores of 80-68 and 92-61. With some new faces on both teams, this year’s matchup between Lakehead and Winnipeg will be another opportunity for younger Thunderwolves to get some run in the Thunderdome, and for Winnipeg to try and exact some revenge after last year’s defeats.
Coach Scott Morrison is glad to have another pre-season home game in front of the best fans in the country, as he mentions, “We are fortunate to get back-to-back weekends at home during non-conference play and are going to be working hard to not disappoint our home fans after such a great atmosphere they provided us with to start the season last weekend.” He continues, “Winnipeg is a well coached team with some developing players that are out to make a jump up the ladder this season. It will be a good test for us to see if we can improve some areas of weakness that showed versus Brandon and also remain consistent with some of our strengths. Each weekend gets tougher from here on out and it is important we establish that we too will get better as a team each time out.”
Injuries:
Nate Wainwright – Doubtful
Brendan King – Out
Game time is 7pm EST, Thursday and Friday evening in the Thunderdome. Games will be webcast on SSN Canada.
Women’s Basketball
Jon Kreiner’s team of young basketball talent will take their game on the road to their Canada West neighbors in the BOB FM Shootout, hosted by U of Winnipeg. They will have games versus the universities of Winnipeg, Regina and Manitoba. Coming off two solid victories over the Brandon Bobcats over the weekend, Lakehead will have a chance to test themselves against some stronger Canada West teams.
Coach Jon Kreiner explains the challenges this weekend presents, “This weekend is an important preparation weekend for our program. The quality of competition will be very strong and will give us a great indication of where we are and what we need to work on most. Winnipeg is a great young team that plays with energy and vigour. They have talented athletes that play hard. Regina will be one of the top teams in the country this year and has a plethora of size and talent. They have a nice mix of veteran and freshman talent and will be a great challenge. Manitoba has always been a very competitive program that plays hard and challenges us to play our best. We had a strong start to our season but must be ready for the mental and physical rigours of a three day tournament against very tough competition.”
Game times (EST) are:
Friday vs Winnipeg- 7:15pm;
Saturday vs Regina – 9:00pm;
Sunday vs Manitoba – 11:00am
Webcasting for these games are as yet undetermined. Check Canada West TV on game day for updated webcast schedule, and U of WinnipegWesmen site
