Friday, January 21, 2011

Thunderwolves Tough Out McMaster 78-76 in Game 1

In what was a physical and highly competitive game from tip-off to the final buzzer, the Lakehead Thunderwolves earned a tough 78-76 win over McMaster in game 1 of their weekend series.
Jamie Searle (5th Year Belleville) led the 'Wolves 29 points on 9-14 shooting adding 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals with 0 turnovers in 35 minutes of play. Yoosrie Salhia had 11 and 8 but shot 1-7 from the FT line while Ven Russell also had 11 on 5-19 shooting. Lakehead's other starters, Greg Carter and Ryan Thomson both battled foul trouble throughout the game combining for only 39 minutes.
McMaster was led by Scott Laws who had 19 as well as Cam Michaud with 17. Scott Brittain had 6 points on 3-10 shooting and added 11 rebounds to lead all players on the glass.
McMaster lead by 1 at the half 33-32 but a strong 3rd quarter from Lakehead (26-19) allowed them to claim the lead for good, withstanding a furious Mac run in the 4th that saw Kyle Gietraitis hit three 3pt shots and ended up with McMaster missing two free throws with 2.4 second remaining to ice the Thunderwolves win.
Both teams shot well from 3pt land (Mac 7-20, Lakehead 12-25) but were horrid from the free throw line. McMaster was 11-20 from the line while Lakehead was a miserable 8-20. Taking into account Jamie Searle was 6-7 from the FT line, the rest of the Lakehead squad shot 2-15 for the game from the charity stripe.

"Anytime you get a road win in his conference you have to be pleased, however our time for reflection is short and we have to refocus on tomorrow's game which will again be a battle. We have to improve our free throw shooting and transition defense as well as get a team effort on the glass tomorrow night."
- Coach Scott Morrison

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