Saturday, March 12, 2011

Lakehead gets Final 8 win over Acadia 75-67

While not as important as last night's loss to TWU, the Lakehead Thunderwolves earned a big win for the program this afternoon in Halifax as they topped the #8 seed Acadia Axemen 75-67. The win "broke the Final 8 ice" for the 'Wolves who had lost 3 straight in the tournament including 2010 in Ottawa. The victory also avenged a non-conference loss to the Axemen in Wolfville back in October.

Lakehead gave a consistent effort on both ends throughout the game, but it was the ball pressure of Lakehead guards Greg Carter, Ben Johnson and Venzal Russell that provided an early boost to the Ontario Champs leading to a 19-16 1st quarter advantage. The story of the first half on the other end was Venzal Russell who took advantage of some smaller match ups in game 2 to put up 16 first half points and finished with a game high 29. Acadia also put forth a great effort and beat Lakehead on the 10-5 on the O glass in the first half.

The second half was a back and forth battle with each teams answering each other. Acadia's Owen Klassen (6'10 C) started to become a major factor inside and finished with 26 points and 14 rebounds. Twice Acadia would take the lead but Lakehead answered each time with a 3pt bomb of their own to reclaim and remain composed throughout. For the game Lakehead shot 10-19 from 3pt land while Acadia was 3-17. Jamie Searle had 4 of those 10 3pt buckets including a couple of daggers late in the 4th quarter to put the game out of reach. Searle finished with 18 points, 5 rebounds in just under 40 minutes of play.

"This was not the most important win that will take place on this court today, but it was still a very big win for our program. We get a chance to play one more game in what has been an excellent season tomorrow morning and also get a 2nd chance at a team we lost to in October. Our goal is to keep pushing and 'leave it all on the table' tomorrow morning vs Dalhousie."
- Coach Morrison

The Thunderwolves take the court bright and early at 10:30am at the Metro Centre.

1 comment:

  1. This is a great win for LU!

    An impressive season to carry over into the Fall campaign.

    Well done coaches, players, trainers, and supporters!

    Congratulations!

    Cliff Huber
    LU Alum of the Olde Daze

    ReplyDelete