Lakehead Wins Thriller in OT vs Laurentian

The Lakehead Thunderwolves finished the first semester with a 7-1 conference record (15-1 overall) with a hard fought win over a very tough Laurentian Voyageurs tonight in Sudbury.

Laurentian came out hot and beat up Lakehead on the glass in the first half to take a 46-38 half-time lead.

The third quarter Lakehead picked up their half-court D and improved on the glass to chip away at the aggressive Laurentian team cutting the lead to 4 to start the third quarter. The 'Wolves had match-up trouble for much of the night especially containing #55 Alex Ratte who had a game high 28 including 2-3 from 3pt land. #21 Mike Hull was also tough for the hosts as he had 18 points and 5 offensive rebounds including the game-tying basket with 12.8 remaining after Lakehead had taken possibly their first lead of the game with just under 40 seconds remaining.

In the 4th and overtime, Lakehead relied on a balanced scoring attack with Brendan King, Joe Jones and RYan Thomson all making key buckets. Thomson was a major factor late in the game as he helped clean the defensive glass down the stretch on his way to posting his first career double-double with 16 and 10 rebounds (despite shooting 1-8 from downtown).

Jones had a rough start but shot 9-11 and had the first 6 points in OT to help LU get their biggest lead of the game with 4 min left in OT. However Laurentian continued to battle and hit big shots of their own.

With Lakehead up 2 and 12 second left in OT, LU forced a turnover in a sideline inbounds situation and knocked down FTs to ice the game 99-95.

Lakehead had 6 players in double figures:

Yoosrie Salhia 10 pts/8 rebs

Ven Russell 10 pts/ 5 rebs

Greg Carter 11 pts/8 rebs in 44 minutes

Brendan King 21 pts (back to back 20 pt games)

Joe Jones 25 points (9-11 shooting).

Coach Morrison on the game:

Credit to Laurentian for outplaying us for over half of this game. Also credit to our guys for never quitting even though there were several times during the game where it looked like we were in too deep. Time now to focus on healing injuries, studying for exams and getting our 'minds right' for the second semester which should very well prove to be the toughest OUA West schedule in my 9 years at Lakehead.