Basketball Action Tips Off Thunderdome

THUNDER BAY – Lakehead Sports – The advent of 2014 welcomes the Waterloo Warriors to the Thunderdome as the women’s and men’s basketball teams resume regular season play this weekend.

Game times are women at 6pm, men at 8pm, Friday and Saturday.

Women (4-6) – The Warriors (2-8) enter the Thunderdome on short rest, having played a make-up game on Tuesday (Jan 7) versus the University of Toronto, which ended in a 83-58 Toronto win.

The Warriors are led by sophomore Marti Killeen with 10.3 points and 7.6 rebounds per game.

This weekend’s games will feature the entrance of transfer guard Jylisa Williams (Atlanta, GA), who has been practicing all season with the ‘Wolves and is now eligible for regular season CIS play.

Coach Jon Kreiner shares, “We’ve had a very long break without any games since November 30 so we are very anxious to get some competition. Our training camp was good but without any games we need to bring energy and focus and be ready to get the rust off while playing at a high level. Waterloo is an improved team. They start a very long line up and have defended teams very tough so far this year. They held Brock to 59 points and competed most of the game against Laurier so we need to be ready for a very tough battle in our first game of the year. This is the first game of our new season, every game in the OUA West will be tough and each win and loss carries great significance. It is important that our team is fully aware of this.”

Men (3-7): The men’s team is coming off a successful non-conference tournament over the winter break, defeating Laval, UQAM, and Sheridan college.

The transition back to regular season play will hopefully be a smooth one for the ‘Wolves against a struggling Warriors team (1-9) that won their first game of the regular season on Tuesday against Toronto, 86-80. They did so on the shoulders of 3rd year guard Jaspreet Gill, who scored 31 points (5 three-pointers), well above his season average of 16.5 ppg.

Coach Matt Erdman comments, “We’re looking forward to playing at home and getting back to a consistent OUA West routine. For our guys, it’s been about coming in prepared and focussed, looking to build on each game. It’s no secret the middle of our conference is a log jam and we need 40 minutes both nights in order to have a chance to beat a Waterloo team that has played well as of late.”

Webcast Coverage available via SSN Canada

Audio broadcast available via LU Radio, 102.7 FM