Laurier Beats Up 'Wolves 91-82

The potent Laurier offense dropped 54 second half points including a decisive 27-14 3rd quarter to beat the 'Wolves 91-82 in Thunder Bay. Leading 42-37 at the half, Lakehead's team D fell apart after a strong effort in the first frame. Kale Harrison led all scorers with 25 on 7-22 shooting adding 3 big offensive boards, but the player of the game was easily Max Allin who had a huge second half en route to a 21 point 10 assist and 7 rebound performance with only 1 turnover in 36 minutes of play. He shot 8-12 including two game changing 3's - a shot clock beating fade-a-way in the first possession of the 2nd half and a late game dagger to finish off the 'Wolves.

Matthew Buckley had 15 points and 8 rebounds and Jamar Forde went 7-8 for 16 points off the bench.

Lakehead was led in scoring by Venzal Russell who had 24 and 3 steals. Yoosrie Salhia went 6-16 from the floor (0 FT attempts) for 12 points and 8 rebounds. Jamie Searle, Joseph Jones and Ryan Thomson all had 10 but Lakehead shot below 40% in the second half missing several good looks around the rim.

"I was really upset with our defensive effort to start the 2nd half. Unlike the first quarter we allowed them to move the ball with ease and gave up too much penetration to the middle. We can't give a scorer like Harrison any easy catches in the half-court and we can't allow an athlete like Forde to get 7 right-hand lay-ups in one game. I thought Carter did a decent job on Allin, but that Allin just had a great game, one of the best I have seen against Greg."

"Any team can be good for short periods of time, but only the great teams play consistently well all the time. We want to be great, but we have to start stacking together more consistent performances to take strides in that direction."

Lakehead Hosts Laurier Friday/Saturday

The Thunderwolves will welcome the high scoring Laurier Golden Hawks to the Thunderdome this weekend in two games that will tip-off at 8pm both Friday and Saturday night.

The 'Wolves and Hawks are 'neck-and-neck' in the OUA West standings and will feature of match-up of the division's top offensive scoring team (Laurier) vs the west's leader in opponent ppg (Lakehead).

See below for SID Hugh "BW" Mullally's take on the upcoming matchup:

Men's Match-up

Laurier's "Big 3" are 6'5 wing Kale Harrison (21.6 PPG, 4.6 RPG), 6'4 wing Max Allin (14.8 PPG, 6.4 RPG) , and 6'8 post Pat Donnelly (16.0 PPG, 9.4 RPG), who provide one of the toughest combination of matchups in the league. All are multi-dimensional scorers and are usually present match-up problems for usually shorter opponents. Laurier's other starting post player Matt Buckley is also having a good year, averaging 13.2 PPG and 9.1 RPG. With Lakehead usually preferring to play 'small ball', the taller opponents (currently CIS #1 in offensive rebounding) will challenge LU rebounding specialist Yoosrie Salhia, who has 5 straight 'double doubles' going into the weekend. Laurier is also currently averaging 89.4 Points Per Game, and LU 75.4, and with both teams apt to the 'run and gun' offensive strategy, a fast paced high scoring affair is not out of the question.

Last Match-up Results

These two team split the season series last year @ the Laurier gym, LU losing the first game 69-59 before winning the second 79-65.

Coach Morrison's Message:

"The big and skilled lineup that Laurier puts on the floor is a challenging group to match up with. It becomes a 'pick your poison' scenario. We have to be prepared to stay focused when Laurier heats up and stick to our game plan in order to keep the game close. It has been almost two months since our last home game and we are looking forward to getting out there and playing our first game of 2011 in front of the best fans in the country."

Games can also be watched on SSN Canada, www.ssncanada.ca/games , and heard locally on LU Radio, 102.7 FM.

Lakehead @ Guelph Highlights

Game 2 highlights are up on the Lakehead Basketball youtube channel.

www.youtube.com/11mofeed

(Or Click link on right hand side!)

Lakehead Beats Guelph 71-63 to Complete Sweep

The Lakehead Thunderwolves again battled a hard-nosed Guelph squad for 40 minutes, pulling away in the third quarter before allowing Guelph back in the game for the deciding 4th quarter.

Guelph's young perimeter had a great game as all four of their guards scored in double figures led by MIke Petrella who had a stand-out game finishing with 18 points and 5 assists. George Mason again scored in double figures with 10 and Drew Morris was 3-4 from 3pt range for 13.

Lakehead's victory came on the strength of 20 offensive rebounds to make up for some poor outside shooting (7-27 from 3pt range).

Yoosrie Salhia was again a leader with his 5th straight double double (11 points 13 rebounds) and Venzal Russell had some great hustle to pick up 17 points and 6 rebounds (5 offensive). Ryan Thomson completed a great weekend scoring 13 points and adding 8 rebounds with 0 turnovers. Greg Carter shot 3-6 from 3pt range to finish with 11 points.

"Yet again we had to scramble to beat a tough Guelph team that did not give up and kept coming at us 100% for 40 minutes. I thought our rebounding was the difference tonight as 20 offensive boards made up for missing 20 3pt shots. We have to regroup and start getting prepared to host a hot shooting Laurier team that attempted to break the scoreboard tonight."

Lakehead Vs Guelph Highlights

Game 1

http://www.youtube.com/11mofeed

(Or Click on the "Video Highlights" on the right side of the main blog page.

Thunderwolves 66 Guelph 55

Down 5 points with just under 5 minutes remaining, the Lakehead Thunderwolves cleaned up their half-court defense and held Guelph to eight 4th quarter points to sneak out a 66-55 win at Guelph on Friday night.

Yoosrie Salhia had a big game for Lakehead and kept the 'Wolves in it through a tough 1st and 3rd quarters that saw Guelph out-score Lakehead 41-25. Luckily the 'Wolves controlled the 2nd and 4th holding Guelph to single digit scoring in those frames. Salhia (3rd Year, Toronto) finished with a season high 25 points and 12 rebounds to go along with 4 blocks from the weak-side.

Jamie Searle (5th year, Belleville) also had a good effort notching 12 points and 7 rebounds. Ryan Thomson (2nd year Oakville) was the only other Wolf in double figures with 10 points.

Guelph was led by George Mason who had 15 on 6-8 shooting and Jerald Greenidge who had 11.

"I have always considered Guelph one of the tougher defensive teams in Ontario since taking this job back in 2003. Tonight proved no different as a short-handed team battled us all night and if it were not for the extra effort on the boards of Salhia and Searle we would have come out on the losing end of this one. We need to make some adjustments and try to maintain our defensive intensity over 4 quarters tomorrow night."

Thunderwolves Meet Guelph Tonight

The Lakehead Thunderwolves are back in action for their first OUA West games of the season.

The team is in Guelph for 2 games both at 8pm on Friday and Saturday night. Both games will be broadcast on ssn at www.ssncanada.ca.

The 'Wolves are coming off a tough 1-2 record at the Wesmen Classic just before the New Year where they beat Brandon, lost by 3 to #3 Saskatchewan in the semi-finals and then suffered a tough loss to Manitoba in the tournament Consolation.

Guelph faired better at their holiday tournament being named tournament champions at the UQAM invitational with a perfect 3-0 record.

See the link below for Lakehead SID Hugh "Buck" Mullally's weekly preview:

http://www.thunderwolves.ca/?page=articleview&id=4519