Lakehead Salvages Split with 65-58 Win over Waterloo

The Thunderwolves cranked up their defense tonight and contained a versatile Waterloo offense to 58 points including 27 in the 2nd half. Using a different array of match-ups from the previous night, Lakehead held the host Warriors to 36% FG (down from 47 Friday) and 15% (2-13) 3pt shooting. The 'Wolves moved stopper Greg Carter back to defending the ball and he forced Luke Kieswetter to a 1-7 night following a strong 5-7 on Friday. To his credit, Kieswetter handled Carter's ball pressure to the tune of 4 assists and 0 turnovers in a team high 33 minutes.

The major story of the night was 5th year senior Andrew Hackner, who broke out of a 2nd semester slump 4 points, 5 rebounds (3 offensive) and a pair of key blocks in 26 minutes of play. Hackner drew the assignment of guarding Waterloo Senior Tim Rossy and held him to 4 points on 1-6 shooting after the Winnipeg native lit up the Thunderwolves for 26 in Waterloo's opening night win

Lakehead's other 5th year senior, Jamie Searle, was the best offensive player on the court netting 24 points on 9-14 shooting (6-9 3pt) adding 5 rebounds in 39 minutes of play. Searle also stepped up his defense Saturday playing a major role in containing Cam McIntyre to 2-10 shooting (3-19 on the weekend).

Here is the report from Lakehead SID A.K.A "Sherwood's Finest" Hugh Mullally.

LU Men Go 1-1 Against Waterloo

February 5th, 2011

Basketball - Men's

General News

Author: Hugh Mullally

The Men's Thunderwolves basketball team was able to scrape out a win in Waterloo, winning 65-58 Saturday evening. Lakehead led 50-45 heading into the 4th quarter, and managed to finish stronger than they had done in Friday night's loss.

Jamie Searle came up with another big performance, hitting 6 threes and finishing with a total of 24 points and 5 rebounds. Venzal Russel was next with 13 points. Yoosrie Salhia wasn't the usual rebounding force Thunderwolf fans are accustomed to, only grabbing 4, but he made up for it with a game-high 5 assists. Most of LU's most important plays didn't show up on the stat sheet, as Andrew Hackner came in to play a season-high 26 minutes of tough defense against Tim Rossy, the Warrior who had scored 26 points the night earlier. Rossy finished with 4 on Saturday. Waterloo's top scorer, Cam McIntyre was draped by LU defenders all weekend, only scoring 7 total points (5 tonight), after going into the weekend averaging close to 20 PPG.

Lakehead led 60-54 with 2:46 remaining, and kept their guards up to the end, as Venzal Russell came up with a critical steal with less than 2 minutes left which he took in for an uncontested layup. Greg Carter followed that up by digging a steal from Wayne Bridge on a post up with 30 seconds remaining.

Happy to get a road win on the second night, LU Coach Scott Morrison expressed his thoughts about his Thunderwolves:

"I was very proud of our guys for battling hard tonight over 40 minutes. Waterloo is a strong offensive team and clogged the paint well on the defensive end. It was a big win for us as we were short-handed and did not play our best but toughed out a win."

Lakehead will next turn it's focus to their home games versus the Brock Badgers Feb 11-12