THUNDER BAY – A week after toppling No. 3 Brock on the road, the Lakehead Thunderwolves faced an even more daunting task at home – the No. 2 Ottawa Gee-Gees.
The T-Wolves are no slouches themselves, slotted in at No. 9 in the national rankings, but is still a team vying for recognition from the basketball world.
If they didn’t have it before Friday night, they’ve got it now.
Lakehead roared back from 10 points down at half, largely on the back of star guard Michael Okafor, who powered his way through the paint in the second and third, scoring 16 of his 18 points after the break to lead the Thunderwolves to a stunning 69-65 win over the previously undefeated Gee-Gees at the C.J. Sanders Fieldhouse.
“I just trusted my team, the coaches and all,” said Okafor, who scored seven straight points in the third to turn a 53-43 game into a one-possession affair.
“Last weekend I had a bad weekend, but it didn’t really bother me. They just told me to play my game and keep going. It was just that positivity that kept me going in the second half. In the first half, I had two points, but the second half we had the same positivity in the locker room. I’m the guy, so I’ve got to keep going.”
It didn’t help that he found himself in early foul trouble, relegated to the bench for much of the second quarter.
It was a strategy that worked, as unorthodox as it might be, coach Ryan Thomson knowing he needed Okafor’s offensive and defensive presence to keep the Gee-Gees honest.
It was a statement win, said forward Eric Gonzalez, after coming off the bench to score nine points, including a key three-pointer with 1:40 to go in regulation that regained the LU lead for good, up 64-62 at the time.
Ottawa had jumped in front briefly two minutes earlier on a Josh Inkumsah bucket, after Lakehead had built a four-point lead.
“We showed we are trying to do something big this year,” Gonzalez, who added five rebounds and a pair of steals.
“We’re trying to accomplish our objective, which is not just nationals, but the championship.”
Ottawa took control early and built a nine-point lead after the opening quarter, punctuated by a Quincy Louis-Jeune three-pointer, Dragan Stajic closing it out by stealing the inbounds pass and dropping a shot at the buzzer.
Lakehead closed the gap to four early in the second when Nathan Bilamu hit from distance, but Louis-Jeune stretched it back to 10 with a last-minute trey.
Try as they might, the Thunderwolves struggled to draw even or take the lead in the fourth, at least in the early going. Javier Fernandez was fouled on a three-point attempt, but only hit one free throw, and Lakehead trailed 55-54.
They’d had several chances in the third to get back to even ground, but the shots didn’t drop. But it wasn’t meant to be for Ottawa.
Chris Sagl fired up a three that bounced around the rim and through, and Lakehead took their first lead of the night, 2:38 into the fourth. After Gonzalez gave them the lead late in the fourth, Okafor stole the ball and went to the hoop, completing the three-point lead at the free-throw line, LU up 67-62. But then he missed a pair of free throws after the Wolves got the ball back, giving Ottawa hope.
Gonzalez all but crushed it in the final seconds, putting a shot up and in from in the paint, making it a two-possession game with 10 seconds to go.
“We didn’t have a very good first half, quite frankly,” said Thomson.
“But I thought the guys did a great job in the second half staying together, trying to execute and really working for great shots.”
Lakehead (4-1) hosts Wilfrid Laurier (3-2) on Saturday night. Tip-off is 8 p.m.
