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...from Lakehead Sports Information

Wolves men’s basketball to host Brandon Bobcats

Thunder Bay, Ont. – The Lakehead Thunderwolves men’s basketball team will return to action this Friday and Saturday as they host the Brandon Bobcats in preseason nonconference action at the C. J. Sanders Fieldhouse in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Both games get started at 7:00pm.

The two game series will rekindle an historic rivalry between the two squads dating back to their days of battling in the GPAC conference. Brandon now plays in the Canada West conference (Prairie Division) while Lakehead is in the OUA.

Lakehead Thunderwolves
Lakehead will field a young roster with significant potential. Head coach Scott Morrison brought in one of the best recruiting classes nationwide for a second straight year and will be looking for contributions from several key players.

Point guard Greg Carter of Ottawa is one of the top defenders in the CIS and will lead the Wolves with fellow second year player, Yoosrie Salhia from Toronto, last year’s top CIS rebounder and a strong low post scoring threat.

Joining Carter in the backcourt will be Jamie Searle, a fourth-year combo guard with a dangerous outside shot.

Other key returnees include second-year post Brendan King who has made significant strides as a basketball player during the past year and Andrew Hackner, a fourth-year veteran who will give the Wolves a rugged athlete who can defend multiple positions.

Highlighting Morrison’s recruiting class is wing Matt Nagy, an Arkansas native with a combination of size, strength, and perimeter skills. Joe Jones, a transfer from Howard Community College will get an opportunity to contribute against the Bobcats and NCAA transfer Cam Hornby of Winnipeg will be a rotation player this season.

Up front, another transfer, Seb Kasiuk, formerly of the University of Guelph will be a big contributor for Lakehead, while first-year athletes Ryan Thomson from Oakville and Anthony McIntosh will fit into the team’s plans.

Cam Hornby, Yoosrie Salhia, Greg Carter, Andrew Quirion and Matt Nagy all sat out the Oct 3rd alumni game with injuries and will be assessed throughout the practices this week as to their status for the home series.

Brandon Bobcats
Brandon head coach Keith Vassell will lead a team into Thunder Bay that features several new faces with a strong core group of returnees. His team won the Great Plains Division before bowing out in the Canada West semi-finals to eventual national silver medalists UBC. They will likely factor into the CIS title race again this season with their strong guard and wing-oriented line-up.

Pacing the Bobcats is Dany Charlery of Montreal, a 6’3” Mike Moser Award candidate who averaged 21.1 points per game in 2008-09. His backcourt running mate is fifth-year point guard Tarik Tokar who transferred to the team last year from Manitoba.

Another strong point guard Andrew Kraus joins the team this year after transferring from Acadia. Kraus led the Axemen to a remarkable upset of perennial powerhouse Carleton, two seasons ago at the CIS championships.

Lakehead head coach Morrison is looking forward to seeing his team start off their competitive schedule.

"We are excited to tip-off our CIS season after a long and productive training camp. Injuries may shorten our bench a bit but will give us the opportunity to get our young players such much needed experience on the court against top CIS level competition. The next three weeks are going to give us a great chance to see our new people reacting to game situations and learning to play together."