THUNDER BAY – Sports – “We got our butts kicked tonight,” stated Coach Scott Morrison. “Queen’s ran circles around us. Our guys continue to make the same mistakes we harp on all week. I have to find a better way to teach our game plan and the players have to make a better effort to execute. Everyone needs to get to work and improve starting tomorrow.”
The Lakehead Thunderwolves men’s basketball team was handed their first home court loss in a year, 96-87 to the Queen’s Gaels. Their record goes 1-2 on the season.
Fielding a team that was feeling the pinch of the injury bug, coach Scott Morrison was forced to go deeper into his bench than usual, with Ryan Thomson and Anthony McIntosh sitting on the bench in street clothes. Despite the energy that the bench brought, it was not enough against a Queen’s team that was self assured and hungry to get at the #7 ranked team in the country while they were hobbled by injury.
Queen’s difference maker was the second quarter, out-scoring Lakehead 28-13 in the frame. In terms of individuals, Greg Faulkner was a man on a mission, scoring 22 points and grabbing 8 rebounds. Roshane Roberts finished with 17 points, 14 of them coming in the first half.
Try as he might, Yoosrie Salhia was unable to put the Lakehead team on his back tonight, finishing with 18 points and 12 rebounds, and eventually fouling out on a box out after a free throw in the dying minutes of the game. Joe Hart was a bright spot for the T-Wolves, hitting on all 3 of his long range attempts to total 15 points and 5 rebounds. Ben Johnson had 17 points.
The biggest difference maker was the size differential of personnel, with smaller Lakehead defenders fouling a lot of Queen’s post players. Queen’s shot 44 free throws, hitting 32 of them. Lakehead, meanwhile had 27 trips to the line, connecting on 17. The T-wolves couldn’t rely on their outside shooting either, hitting 8 of 28 (28%) compared to Queen’s 10-24 (42%).
The men will need improvement dearly as they head into the belly of the beast next weekend against #2 Carleton and the Ottawa Gee Gees.
