Thunderwolves Fall 73-72 in Basketball Action

THUNDER BAY – Sports – A painful 73-72 loss arrived on Friday evening for the men’s basketball team against the hard-nosed Western Mustangs. It might be easier said that a victory slipped out of the ‘Wolves hands, as they held an 11-point lead early in the fourth quarter.

For 35 minutes the two teams exchanged hay-makers, with Henry Tan packing a lot of punch early, hitting 5 first-half three pointers to bring the Mustangs out of their 2-3 zone defense and giving the ‘Wolves a 42-35 halftime lead.

Things stayed even through the 3rd Q, until early in the fourth when Henry Tan and Josh Bell would strike from the land beyond to give Lakehead an 11 point cushion with 8 minutes remaining. The Lakehead offense would sputter and drift towards the final buzzer, scoring only 8 points after the duo of early three pointers, while their defense gave up 21 points in the last 10 minutes of play.

Despite their lacklustre play, Lakehead did have a chance to win the game. With possession and 12 seconds remaining they ran a play and found Alex Robichaud on the block for a short bank shot over Mustang Peter Sholtes that missed the mark as time expired.

The Mustangs shot an impressive 8 of 11 from three-point range, led by Sholtes with 19 points and 4 rebounds.

Henry Tan finished with 26 points and 3 assists, while Igor Lebov added 12 points with 7 rebounds. Brent Wallace scored 8 points with 7 rebounds in 16 minutes of play.

Coach Matt Erdman stated after the game, “We didn’t put together a complete game and Western took advantage of the way we handled ourselves in the 4th. The focus is all on tomorrow and making adjustments as well as trying to not get complacent.”

The ‘Wolves get a chance at redemption tomorrow evening at 8:00pm.

Webcast available via SSN Canada.

Audio broadcast available via LU Radio 102.7FM