THUNDER BAY – The Lakehead Thunderwolves are in the playoffs by the slimmest of margins.
But they’ll go in on a losing note.
The Wolves were sunk at the free-throw line late in Saturday night’s regular season-ending contest, falling 78-75 to the visiting Wilfred Laurier Golden Hawks. But they snapped up the 12th and final spot in the OUA men’s basketball playoffs, edging out the Guelph Gryphons by 0.0014 points in the ratings performance index standings.
Both teams finished with identical 6-13 records, but the Thunderwolves squeaked in based on their opponents’ winning percentage, one of the determinants in factoring the RPI.
A frustrated third-year coach Manny Furtado said he’s glad they’re in, but thought they should have finished higher in the standings.
“Personally, my expectations aren’t to be the 12th seed,” Furtado said. “Yeah, we got in, great but I’d rather be a top five seed.
“After this year and some of the games we had, to me we could be an eight or nine seed, maybe a seven seed next year hosting a game. It was one of our goals to make the playoffs and anything can happen now. Like I said on the board, everybody is 0-0. It’s a new season.”
The Wolves will head to Toronto to open the playoffs against the Varsity Blues on Wednesday night.
American import Bacarius Dinkins, who played his final game at the Thunderdome on Saturday night, said he’d rather have entered the post-season on a winning note, but they’ll have to put the loss in the rear-view mirror in a hurry.
There’s no time for sorrow with a championship on the line.
“We’ve got to focus on the playoffs now,” said Dinkins, who exited on a personal positive note, leading the Thunderwolves with 18 points, completing the double-double with 11 rebounds.
“We’ve got to focus on winning that playoff game and getting to the next game and keep it going.”
A quick start saw Lakehead race out to a 21-9 lead over the Golden Hawks (9-11), who will draw Laurentian in the opening round.
The Wolves put together a 14-2 run, powered mostly by Dinkins and Wais Mohamed, who hit double digits for the second straight night with an 11-point effort.
But Laurier stormed back in the second and trailed 38-36 at the half.
They continued their hot-shooting ways in the third quarter, riding a 16-2 run of their own to take a short-lived 56-49 advantage.
A Kache Kopec three, a bucket by Dinkins and a pair of free throws by departing guard Alex Robichaud returned the Thunderwolves to even ground and the two teams entered the fourth tied 59-59.
There were five lead changes in the fourth quarter alone, the Golden Hawks leading by as many as five points after Kopec had regained the lead for LU with a long-distance trey.
Mohamed tied the game with a three of his own with 26.6 seconds left, but Dinkins was called for a foul under the hoop and Vladimir Motovic hit one of two free throws – after Lakehead called its final timeout – to push the Hawks in front by one.
A court-length inbounds pass sailed over Dinkins’ head and Motovic made two more from the charity stripe to seal the win – although just barely.
LU’s Nick Burke did manage to hit the rim on a potential game-tying Hail Mary at the buzzer.
Tevaun Kokko led all scorers with 19 for Laurier. Chuder Tenny and Matthew Chesson had 14 apiece. Kashe Kopec finished with 14 and Nahshon Hurst had 13 for LU.
