3rd year forward Justin Boutilier hit a baseline runner with 2 seconds left to break a 70-70 tie and ice the homecoming win for the Axemen.
Lakehead held a 4 point lead entering the 4th but went cold on the offensive end including three point blank lay-ups missed against the Acadia 2-3 zone.
Acadia earned themselves 3 second chance scorees on offensive rebounds from the perimeter in the final quarter that proved to be crucial in Acadia pulling ahead.
Acadia's front court dominated the game as Boutilier had 16 and 12 rebounds while 6'10 Owen Klassen had 14 and 10 boards.
Venzal Russell had 20 points but also 5 turnovers while Matt Schmidt put forth the team's best individual effort with 13 points and 6 rebounds.
Free throws were even tonight but Acadia won the rebounding battle 13-9 which proved to be a deciding factor late in the game along with Lakehead's missed "bunnies".
"We are obviously not playing our best basketball right now. We had chances to win tonight's game and could not capitalize to finish it off. Last year we would have converted late chances and not given up key 4th quarter O boards and that was why we were able to win so many games late."
"We have to work some things out but in general we need our veteran players to start executing simple plays and get back to the grinding effort that made us successful last season."
Good game to the team
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