ABBOTSFORD, BC- Sports – The men’s basketball team improved to 2-0 vs BC teams in the pre-season, winning 88-72 over the University of Northern British Columbia Timberwolves on Thursday evening.
Despite playing with a road-weary roster, the Thunderwolves got out of the gate fast against their opponent 20-15 after ten minutes. Halftime score was 41-37 Lakehead.
Top scorer for Lakehead was veteran point guard Greg Carter with 23 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds and 1 turnover in 36 minutes. Three other Thunderwolves broke double digits thanks to 15 from Dwayne Harvey and 10 each from Anthony McIntosh and Ben Johnson. McIntosh and Harvey combined for 13-16 from the free throw line. Mike Thorne-Finch had 6 points in as many minutes.
On the other side the Timberwolves’ Francis Rowe had 18 points on 8-10 shooting and his compadre Joel Rybachuk had 17. UNBC committed 8 turnovers compared to only 4 assists made. Charles Barton had 10 points and a game-high 6 rebounds.
Lakehead coach Scott Morrison commented, “Tonight we saw some excellent toughness from our team. After a difficult travel day and several nagging injuries we managed to get enough key hoops and stops to get the job done. UNBC is a challenging opponent as their guards are skilled and hard nosed. We could not take a possession off tonight and the game was much closer than the score indicated.”
Morrison concluded, “We were already short handed and are now playing hurt for our 6th and 7th games of the trip the next two days- I am looking forward to seeing just how deep our bench is before we jump into conference play.”
On Friday evening Lakehead will take on the hosting Fraser Valley Cascades, the team that knocked them out of the CIS Final 8 last year.
Game time is 9 pm EDT. Webcast available via CanadaWest TV
