THUNDER BAY – Sports News – The Lakehead Thunderwolves men’s basketball team managed a 90-80 victory on Friday evening, something to be very thankful for on this weekend. Following a forgettable game on Thursday, the Thunderwolves played tough on Friday evening and went shot for shot against a taller, more athletic Winnipeg team. Halftime score was 43-31 Lakehead. The Wesmen did turn it on in the second half, equalling LU’s output in the 3rd Q (25pts) and winning the 4th Q, 24-22.
Lakehead got contributions from the whole team, which shot very well from the floor (51%), and even better from beyond the arc (15-23, 65%). The free throw shooting woes of Thursday’s game seemed to disappear as well, as they improved to 71% (17-24) from the stripe.
Five Thunderwolves scored in double digits, led by Matt Schmidt and Ben Johnson with 16 points apiece, while big men Anthony McIntosh and Ryan Thomson had 10 points each. Joe Hart went 4-5 from the floor for 11 eleven points. In his best game yet in a Thunderwolves uniform, Brandon Myketa (Thunder Bay) came off the bench for 3 points, an assist and a rebound in 9 minutes of play.
Wesmen Jordan Clennon had a game-high 20 points to go with 4 assists. Point guard Andrew Cunningham had 10 points and 8 assists, and Benny Iko had 16 points and 5 rebounds for the Wesmen.
Coach Scott Morrison commented, “I thought our offensive game was much improved tonight from Thursday’s effort – we shot well both nights but tonight I felt we earned good looks with intelligent decisions off penetration. However, our defense and rebounding is not ready to compete with the best right now. Credit to Winnipeg for exposing a lot of holes in our team D tonight – we were just fortunate to be feeling it from outside enough to hold them off. Our team gets a much deserved break as we close the first portion of our pre-season. We’re looking forward to getting rested and back to the workshop in practice next week.”
The remainder of Lakehead’s pre-season games will be played on the road.
