Lakehead (10-13, 8-9) 80, Western (15-10, 8-8) 77 6'3" Matthew Powell broke out with 25 points and 8 rebounds including 3-6 from downtown offsetting a career-high 29 points on 7-12 3's from Western's 6'1" guard Matt Curtis as the T-Wolves grabbed an important win at home in the Thunderdome. Lakehead overcame an early second quarter, 20 point deficit with a late run before halftime and then took the lead in the third quarter. Powell, a JUCO transfer originally from Toronto Henry Carr, took over the offense with 6'4" Kiraan Posey in foul trouble and allowed the T-Wolves to grab sole possession of fifth place, just one-half game behind the Mustangs for fourth and a home playoff game. Posey finished with 14 points in just 12 minutes while 6'5" Brad Smith had 16 points and 9 rebounds for Western but shot only 6-19 from the floor, part of a 33% effort from the field by the Mustangs. Conversely Lakehead shot over 50% from the floor including 9-18 from downtown and outrebounded the Mustangs. The teams meet again on Saturday night in Thunder Bay.
Game Report from Lakehead Sports Info... Wolves Come Back to Beat Mustangs (Matt Prokopchuk: Lakehead Sports Info Assistant) After coming off two losses to Windsor on the road last weekend, the Lakehead Thunderwolves men’s basketball team pulled off a huge come-from-behind win Friday at the Thunderdome in Thunder Bay. The Wolves beat the Western Mustangs 80-77, and gain a much-needed win against a division rival in the dogfight for playoff spots in the OUA West. Lakehead’s record now stands at 8-9 in OUA play and 13-14 overall, while Western drops to 8-8 in conference play (17-10 overall). In the early going, it appeared that Western was going to run away with the game, leading 21-9 after the first quarter and building up a 20 point lead early in the second. But the Thunderwolves turned it around, going on a 14-2 run, and outscoring the Mustangs 26-22 in the second quarter, and 26-16 in the third. With Kiraan Posey seeing long stints on the bench due to foul trouble, newcomer Matthew Powell took over the offensive reigns dropping 25 points and grabbing 8 rebounds. Posey, despite only playing 12 minutes in total still collected 14 points and 4 rebounds, while Warren Thomas chipped in with 11 points and 5 rebounds. Second year forward Zach White also had a strong game with 10 points (including going 3-3 from three point range) and 3 rebounds. Multi-talented guard Matthew Curtis was Western’s big gun Friday dropping a game-high 29 points and collecting 4 rebounds. Brad Smith was one rebound shy of a double-double with 16 points and 9 rebounds, and Andrew Wedemire also found double digits in scoring with 10 points. Lakehead shot a very strong 50.9 per cent from the field while Western shot 37 per cent. Lakehead outrebounded the Mustangs 33-27. Thunderwolves head coach Scott Morrison says despite the bad start, the team showed perseverance. “I gotta give the guys credit,” he says. We could have got down there when we got down early and got in foul trouble and things weren’t really going our way, but I got to give credit to everybody who toughed it out.” He pointed out Matt Powell and Zach White as playing their best games of the year. The Thunderwolves will try to make it a weekend sweep as the teams take to the court Saturday evening. Our apologies to our webcast viewers and radio and audiocast listeners as there was a malfunction in the computer used to upload the video and audio signals for the broadcasts and unfortunately Lakehead wasn’t able to broadcast the men’s games. We are working on fixing the problem for Saturday’s game; so please check www.thunderwolves.ca Saturday to see if the game will be broadcast. The problem was with the Lakehead computer and not the fault of our webcast service; News-Cast.com.
OUA WEST STANDINGS
Windsor 12-4
Brock 11-5
Guelph 9-7
Western 8-8
Lakehead 8-9
Laurier 7-9
McMaster 7-9
Waterloo 4-13
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