HALIFAX, NS – Sports – The men’s basketball team were defeated at the hands of the the Fraser Valley Cascades in the first round of the CIS Final 8, 83-71.
In a what was to be a defining game for the Thunderwolves, who were on a mission to redeem themselves after two first round losses the past two years at the championship tournament, they came up against a Cascades team that had an answer for nearly every run the Pack made. In particular, guard Sheldon Bjorgaard was a show stopper for UFV, making 5 of 6 three pointers, on top of a perfect 4-4 free throw performance to total 19 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal.
For the Thunderwolves, Joseph Jones had 20 points as did 2nd team all-Canadian Venzal Russell. Russell also claimed player of the game accolades for the Thunderwolves, and Bjorgaard for the Cascades.
UFV post Kyle Grewal was a force in the paint, scoring 17. As the game wound down, Grewal’s number was called for isolation plays many times.
The halftime score sat at 34-29 for UFV in a back-and-forth frame that lead changes and extreme hustle from both sides. The closest Lakehead came to winning a quarter was in the 2nd, when UFV out-scored them 17-16. Box score follows below.
Coach Scott Morrison said, “It was still close with a few minutes left. I think we were down by only seven points. But we just couldn’t get the key stop in the final minutes, and we had trouble finishing all day offensively.”
Lakehead will play the loser of the Carleton-Acadia game tomorrow morning at 12 noon local, (11 am EST). Game will be webcast on SSN.
Shaw Cable 10 (Thunder Bay local) will be picking up the feed for the CIS Final 8 men’s basketball championship. Televised games include the semi finals (5 and 7:15 EST) Saturday and final gold medal game Sunday (3:15 EST).