THUNDER BAY – Comebacks are crowd-pleasers when they’re completed.
They’re not so entertaining when they fall short.
A night after rallying from 25 down to edge the Toronto Metropolitan Bold by six, the Lakehead Thunderwolves were at it again on Saturday night, finding themselves down by 13 points at the half, only to be back on even ground by the time the fourth quarter rolled around.
This time, however, it was the Bold who came out on top, thanks in large part to a fantastic finish by guard Aaron Rhooms, who put up 10 of his 25 points on the night in the final frame, leading TMU to an 84-75 win at the C.J. Sanders Fieldhouse, just the second time the Thunderwolves have gone down to defeat on home court in 2022-23.
“It was my teammates, having faith in my teammates, having faith in the system, as a unit. We dug in, we remembered our principles and we got it done,” said Rhooms, a second-year budding star from Mississauga.
Tied 59-59 after three, Rhooms opened with a bucket to give the Bold the lead back, then orchestrated a steal and completed the bucket, TMU taking a 63-59 lead.
He’d hit a pair of threes later in the frame, but even down by 12, the Thunderwolves didn’t relent, Michael Okafor nailing a three and completing an and-one at the free-throw line to cut the double-digit TMU lead in half, needing just 40 seconds to do so.
But LU couldn’t take advantage of a turnover of Toronto Metropolitan’s next possession and David Walker put up a quick four point to extend the lead back to nine with less than two minutes to play and time ran out.
Okafor, who finished with 29, said he and his teammates didn’t get the job done in the defensive zone.
“It was hard. We’d get a bucket and then we couldn’t get a defensive stop. It’s hard with a talented team like that, not getting a defensive stop.”
The former NCAA wing was the only Lakehead shooter to find much of a groove on the night, the sole player to hit double digits. Tyler Sagl and Dylan Morrison came close, with eight apiece, but the shots didn’t fall, other than in the third, when the Thunderwolves outscored TMU 26-13, even taking a 59-57 lead late in the period.
After trailing by 16 after one on Friday night, Lakehead was down 25-12 after one in Saturday’s rematch, a deficit that would hold until halftime.
One area that Lakehead will need to improve in is at the free-throw line.
Down 14 at the buzzer, Laoui Msambya was fouled taking a shot from half-court, but only hit one of three free throws. So instead of cutting the lead to 11, it was 13. On the night Lakehead made just 17 of 26 from the charity stripe, a momentum killer at times.
“If we’re able to generate free throw attempts, that’s good offence. But when we get there, we have to be focused and ready to take advantage. That, and maybe settling for some really difficult threes, didn’t help us,” said LU coach Ryan Thomson.
That said, falling behind to a team like the Bold was not part of the playbook.
“It was just a disappointing start,” Thomson said. “At halftime they were shooting 60 per cent from the field. It’s tough to be in a game, let alone still in striking distance at halftime, but really we just didn’t execute at the start of the game.”
Lakehead dropped to 14-4 with the loss, while TMU improved to 11-7. The T-Wolves are on the road next weekend against No. 4 Queen’s and Ontario Tech (2-16). They finish up the regular season the following weekend against Algoma and No. 2 Carleton.
