THUNDER BAY – Ryan Thomson swears he didn’t give any kind of inspirational speech at halftime of his team’s season-opener on Friday night.
At the time, the Lakehead Thunderwolves trailed by three and looked a little listless, content to let a team that finished 5-9 a year ago hang around.
It was a different Thunderwolves team that emerged from the locker room to start the third.
Michael Okafor, who had just seven points at the break, put up seven straight points to turn a 43-40 deficit into a 47-43 lead, then dished off a pinpoint pass to Nathan Bilamu who buried a three to extend the lead to seven.
They’d never trail the rest of the way and Bilamu once again showed flashes of brilliance, finishing with 20 points, tied with Okafor for the game-high, adding three rebounds and two assists to his stat line.
“I see that the consistency with our team sometimes leads to slow starts, but we’re definitely working on that and I’m glad that we grinded it out and we got the W,” said Bilamu, adding he was happy his shots were falling as he hit 5-of-7 from the field, including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc.
“With our team, that could happen with anyone, at any time of night. It could be me, it could be anyone else that gets 20 points or is on fire. We have a lot of players that contributed (tonight) and I’m just glad I have teammates that shared the ball, played as a team and were non-selfish.”
The Thunderwolves, who led by four after one, built their lead to as much as 11 in the third, rookie Javier Fernandez sinking one of two three-pointers on the night, en route to an eight-point OUA debut at the C.J. Sanders Fieldhouse.
Try as they might, Lakehead just couldn’t pull away. Viktoras Nausedas closed the third with a thunderous dunk that cut the LU lead to 69-62.
Alston Harris, who came off the bench to finish with 13, opened the fourth with a deep three-pointer that restored a 10-point Thunderwolves lead, but Rasheed Weekes responded with a hoop and made the and-one, then after Okafor missed a pair of free throws, Emmanuel Ahsah put up a deuce, two of his 15 points on the night, and Lakehead’s lead was cut to 74-67.
Bilamu hit another shot and buried two free thows with 5:32 to go in regulation, only to have Carl Veltmann close it to six again – despite being called for a lane violation on his free-throw attempt.
“Nathan, he’s been great throughout the season,” Thomson said. “He’s more comfortable this year than he was last. His confidence is a little higher. He went through it last year with us, he knows what our expectations are. He knows what we’re asking him to do and I think he knows a little bit more this year where his shots are coming from.”
The Gryphons would draw no closer as Laoui Msambya collected six points in the final three-and-a-half minutes to build back the LU lead, hitting two free throws with seven seconds remaining to make the final 91-77.
Thomson said one of the keys at halftime was convincing the team to rebound together and go to the glass, not allowing Guelph to control the offensive boards like they did in the first two quarters.
“Credit to Guelph, they’re always a handful to play,” Thomson said. “Coach (Chris) O’Rouke has been there 20-something years. He knows what it takes to get his teams ready to play and they always come with physicality and with that toughness. We saw that in the first half, especially.”
LU hosts Waterloo on Saturday night. Tip-off is 8 p.m.
