Hamilton – SPORTS – The Lakehead University men’s basketball team stayed close down the stretch, but couldn’t get past the pesky McMaster Marauders on Saturday, losing 81-73.
Lakehead played strong out of the gate, carrying forward the energy they showed in Friday’s game. This time around they shot and rebounded the ball much better, notably Jamar Coke, who was 4-of-6 from beyond the arc to score a total 23 points, and grabbed 4 rebounds with 3 assists and 2 steals.
The Thudnerwolves showed grit early, not backing down and leading 18-16 after the first quarter. While the Marauders did strike back in the second frame to lead 35-29 at teh break, Lakehead put up 28 points in the third quarter, tying the game at 57 with ten minutes to play.
As it came down to the wire McMaster had a few more answers, including Leon Alexander, whose acrobatic moves and scoring touch always seemed to eke through the Lakehead defense. Alexander did put his value in jeopardy in the final minutes, being assessed a technical foul following one of his made lay-ups before eventually fouling out. Joe Rocca would also put a spoke in the T-Wolves’ wheels, scoring 20 points (4-of-8 3FG, 6-of-6 FT) with 6 rebounds.
The rebounding deficit on Saturday was trimmed down to -8, McMaster grabbing 44 to Lakehead’s 36, a vast improvement from Friday.
Anthony McIntosh scored 15 points with 9 rebounds for Lakehead, while Dwayne Harvey scored 12 with 5 boards.
Coach Manny Furtado shared, “I loved our guys’ aggressiveness and effort tonight. We just need to do a better job staying focussed for 40 minutes, and make teams earn it instead of giving it to them. We don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves as we’ve got another Top 10 at home next week in the Windsor Lancers.”
The men’s basketball team host the Windsor Lancers next Saturday in the Thunderdome.
