THUNDER BAY – Sports – Both Lakehead Thunderwolves basketball teams will be on the road this weekend for a series of games, the men with 3 in Saskatoon at the Graham Shootout, hosted by U Saskatchewan. The women’s team is in Winnipeg for the U of Manitoba Bisons ‘Shoot for the Cure’ Tournament.
With 4 games under their pre-season belt, the Thunderwolves’ Men’s 4-0 record could be at risk this weekend when they square off against U Saskatchewan, Concordia and Regina. The U Sask Huskies have been a regular attendee to the CIS Final 8 in recent years, and were at the top of the list of teams that Lakehead beat out for the 2011-12 wild card selection. The two teams are slated to clash in the tournament finale on Saturday evening.
Coach Scott Morrison states, “We have gotten our feet wet this season against improved Brandon and Winnipeg squads in the friendly confines of the Thunderdome. This road trip is designed to get us ready for the grind of conference travel as well as to gain experience against some bigger teams that have Top 10 aspirations and CIS Final 8 experience. We expect three tough games with Concordia and Saskatchewan both contenders last season and Regina coming off some strong play in PEI last weekend. We will see three different styles of play and plan to take it one game at a time with the focus on our systems and execution each night.”
A Webcast of the game has not been confirmed. Check U Sask Website for live scores.
Game Times (Eastern):
Thursday, Oct 18
7:30 PM Concordia vs. Lakehead
9:30 PM Regina vs. Saskatchewan
Friday, Oct 19
7:30 PM Lakehead vs. Regina
9:30 PM Saskatchewan vs. Concordia
Saturday, Oct 20
7:30 PM Regina vs. Concordia
9:30 PM Lakehead vs. Saskatchewan
The Thunderwolves’ women will look to shake more dust off prior to the regular season (Nov 9), as they sit at 2-3, and will have an opportunity to exact some revenge against their neighbors to the west, as they face U Manitoba and U Winnipeg, two teams who beat them 2 weeks ago. Olds College (Alta) is also on the menu for the T-Wolves.
Fourth year guard Ayse Kalkan (Winnipeg, MB), is listed as probable for the weekend’s games, despite suffering a broken nose two weeks ago. She will be wearing a protective face mask in the hopes of making the difference against her hometown rivals.
“We’ll see how it goes,” said Kalkan on Tuesday. “I really want to play against those teams, but it will depend on how well I can see with the mask on.”
Game times (EST) are listed below.
Coach Jon Kreiner shares “This weekend provides us with the opportunity to play two of the teams we narrowly lost to a week and a half ago. Winnipeg is a very big & athletic team that gave us trouble on the boards and inside. Manitoba gave us trouble defending penetration and we struggled against their point guard who scored 23 on us. Manitoba also defended our dribble attack well. Olds College will provide us another opponent that we haven’t seen and will allow for us to see if two weeks work has improved our team. We will be dealing with some injuries but I am confident our team will bring good energy and focus this weekend as we prepare for a tough OUA season”.
Webcast Coverage: Canadawest.tv Game times shown are Eastern Time.
Friday, Oct 19
7pm – Lakehead vs. U of Manitoba
9pm – U of Winnipeg vs. Olds College
Saturday, Oct 20
6pm – Lakehead vs. Olds College
8pm – U of Winnipeg vs. U of Manitoba
Sunday, Oct 21
11am – Manitoba vs. Olds College
1pm – Lakehead vs. U of Winnipeg
