Lakehead Wins West Semi-Final 64-59 over Waterloo

A sold out thunderdome crowd witnessed a big win in typical fashion for the 2009-10 'Wolves.
After a slow start in the first half the team went into the locker room down 40-29 at the half. The strong shooting of freshmen Ryan Thomson (17 first half points on 7-10 shooting) and reserve post Sebastian Kasiuk (two 3's and a mid-range jumper) accounted for 25 of the team's 29 points to open the game.

In the second half the 'Wolves defense came to play and reminded the L.U. faithful why they were the top defensive team in the OUA West this season and held Waterloo to 4-27 shooting from the field over the 3rd and 4th quarters. Yoosrie Salhia recorded a double-double of 13 and 10 all in the second half and Greg Carter was a leader on both ends of the floor with his offensive ball control and defensive ball pressure.

Both teams played tough and the crowd noise was a factor in the second half once the team started to mount the come back. The 'Wolves are now scheduled to play @ Windsor for the OUA West Championship. The teams split earlier in January @ Windsor with L.U. winning in OT and taking the 2nd game on the chin by 20.

Here is the link to the LU media release on Saturday's win.
www.thunderwolves.ca

Play-off Basketball Returns to the Thunderdome

Both Lakehead men's and women's teams will host post-season action for the first time in over a decade this week as the women's team hosts Laurier tonight in OUA West quarter-final action and your men's program will host the OUA West Semi-final at 7pm against the winner of tonight's McMaster-Waterloo opening round game.

Our game vs. a yet-to-be determined opponent will be broadcast as usual online, this time in HD, by following the various links on this blog and our home athletics site. (Or SSN Canada)

Here is the link for the upcoming games:
http://www.thunderwolves.ca/?page=articleview&id=4280

Lakehead Splits with Western to finish Regular Season

The Thunderwolves capped their most successful regular season since joining the OUA with an 89-65 victory at home vs. the Western Mustangs. With the win the team finishes at 17-5 in OUA play, good for a tie for first in the OUA west with Windsor. However due to a negative point differential between L.U. and Windsor, Windsor will get the #1 seed for play-offs.

Friday night L.U. lost a heart breaking 60-59 loss to Western in a tough shooting and rebounding game for the team.

check www.thunderwolves.ca for full game reports for each night.

L.U. Hosts Western

The final regular season series for both basketball programs will go this weekend @ the Thunderdome - both nights tip times are 6pm for the women and 8pm for the men.

http://www.thunderwolves.ca/?page=articleview&id=4273

Salhia is Lakehead Male Athlete of the Week

Yoosrie Salhia is Lakehead's athlete of the week after posting impressive numbers in two wins over Brock last weekend. Salhia had 14 points 8 rebounds on Friday night and controlled the paint with 20 and 12 on Saturday night. He currently leads the country in offensive boards.

http://www.thunderwolves.ca/?page=articleview&id=4271

CIS Top Ten Tuesday Feb 16

'Wolves Inch Up to #6 in National Coaches' Poll


http://english.cis-sic.ca/top_10_releases/2009-10/20100216-top10-25

Wolves Sweep Badgers in St. Catharine's

Lakehead finished off a two game sweep pulling away in a 27-13 4th quarter at Brock University. Brock had a full line-up with the return of two injured players, but ran out of steam in the 2nd half. Lakehead's keys were some strong team defense and rebounding.

After the game we held our annual "Road Reunion" which was a great time involving the 12 players and coaches as well as several former players, alumni, supporters, family and friends of the basketball program. Special thanks to former assistant coach Ryan Dudley (2003-06) for securing the location and to former big man Steve "Bones" Riddle who was named MVP of the night.

The team wraps up its regular season vs Western this coming Friday and Saturday and has secured Feb 27 as a home play-off game (OUA West Semi-Final).

Lakehead Wins Game 1 @ Brock 64-45

The 'Wolves started hot out of the gate leading 20-8 and 35-20 after the first and second quarters. Brock was playing without last season's CIS Rookie of the Year Didi Mukendi and this year's favorite to win the same award Clinton Springer Williams.

Yoosrie Salhia led a balanced Thundewolves attack with 14 points 8 rebounds thought Lakehead was out-rebounded by Brock on the offensive glass. With both Mukendi and Spring Williams expected back in the line-up tomorrow night, the team must do a better job boxing out and cleaning the defensive glass and containing Brock's dribble penetration.

Thunderwolves Get Active in Local Community

The team has recently started it's 2010 community programs. The annual Shelterhouse partnership has again started with the team serving 6-8 dinners per year and raising money through charitble donations at our home games. To date the team has raised over $15000 for Shelterhouse and currently is in year 3 of the program.

Annually the team also goes to local elementary schools for clinics and appearances. This season so far there have been appearances for basketball clinics at three different schools including Bishop Gallagher (media release link below) and a reading program at C.D. Howe elementary.

http://www.thunderwolves.ca/?page=articleview&id=4222 (link to story)

CIS Rankings Feb 9, 2010

Lakehead held steady at #8 in the CIS coaches poll released yesterday.
This is the third straight week the team is ranked #8 and the 5th straight week the team has been ranked.

OUA represents 5 of the top 10 teams with #8, 9 and 10 all coming from the OUA West.

http://www.thunderwolves.ca/?page=articleview&id=4241

L.U. Finishes Weekend Sweep of Waterloo

The team battled hard over the weekend to earn two hard-fought and tight games at home against the Waterloo Warriors. Like much of our efforts over the season we did not play our best for the entire 40 minutes on either night but found enough guys willing to tough it out on the defensive end to keep us in the game to the 4th quarter.

Andrew Hackner, Jamie Searle, and Joe Jones all provided some clutch shooting while Yoosrie Salhia was in double-digit rebounds both night. Greg Carter held Waterloo All-Star Cam McIntyre to under 18 points total over the two games (his average per game coming into the weekend was over 18ppg).

Here is the link for saturday's report:
http://www.thunderwolves.ca/?page=articleview&id=4232

LU Basketball Road Reunion 2010

ATTENTION LU ALUMNI AND SUPPORTERS

We are having our 2nd annual LU Men's Basketball "Road Reunion" next weekend in St. Catherine's following our Saturday night game @ Brock U.

All team alumni, former players, supporters, family etc. are invited to join the team for apps and cash bar at "The Cat's Caboose" post game on Sat FEB 13.

The Cat's Caboose website is http://www.catscaboose.ca/ where you can find location and contact info. We have an area reserved for 1030pm and all are welcome.
Please contact Scott.morrison@lakeheadu.ca for further questions or to confirm your attendance.

Hope to see you all out supporting the team on the stretch run in the OUA West!

CIS Rankings Week of Feb 1

L.U. Holds at #8
http://www.thunderwolves.ca/?page=articleview&id=4214

Lakehead Hosts Waterloo for Two in T.Bay

http://www.thunderwolves.ca/?page=articleview&id=4219