Easy victory

The York Lions scored 22 points in the first half Friday night.

They piled on 19 in the third quarter alone and still lost ground to the host Lakehead Thunderwolves.

This is an OUA men’s basketball game that was never in doubt.

Rookie guard Venzal Russell scored 18 points, including three straight baskets in the third quarter that took a 29-point halftime lead to 37 points, as the Wolves made easy work of York, defeating them 89-58 in front of an overflow crowd at the Thunderdome.

“We just stuck to our game plan and just did what we had to do. We got it done,” said Russell, imported all the way from Detroit, where he was a junior college All-American at Vermillion Community College and averaged 23.2 points a game last season.

Russell said there were two reasons the Wolves (2-1) made such easy work of the Lions, who 31.3 per cent from the field, including a woeful 7-for-34 performance in the opening 20 minutes.

“We rebounded and we ran in transition,” he said.

Speaking of transition, Russell said he’s having little difficulty making the adjustment from junior college ball in the States to the Canadian university game.

He’s averaging 13 points a game with the Wolves through the pre-season and has brought something last year’s squad – which made it to nationals – might have been lacking at times.

“It’s pretty much the same,” he said. “I bring a different tempo to the game. That’s why they brought me in here, to get a quicker pace. It’s just basketball, it’s the same thing.”

In his third year of eligibility, Russell said he and his teammates aren’t reading too much into their start, good or bad.

“It’s just a win. We haven’t done anything yet. We still have to come out and play harder tomorrow,” Russell said.

Russell opened the game with a basket 10 seconds into the game, and after Rene-Pier Mathieu tied it, Lakehead guard put the Wolves ahead for good, draining a pair of threes that sparked a 9-2 start. They kept pushing the overmatched Lions (1-2), and aside from back-to-back York baskets with LU up 19-5, it was all Thunderwolves.

Ryan Thompson hit a trey to end the mini-slide, and by the time 10 minutes was up, the Wolves held a commanding 28-9 advantage.

It was more of the same in the second, leading to a 51-22 halftime lead, and though the Lions found a bit of their game in the second half, by then the lead was insurmountable.

Guard Joseph Jones, who scored six points in each half, said it certainly wasn’t as easy as it looked. But a win like this does boost confidence, which will be important going forward in the always tough OUA West.

“We just want to build on every win,” he said, then echoing the words of his teammate Russell and his coach, Scott Morrison. “We just want to stick to our game plan. We set a defensive goal to try to keep the team under, and we just try to do that,” Jones said.

“Everything’s going to seem easy when you stick to your game plan. The coach gives us the plan, and as long as we execute it, we’re going to get looks. We’re a great shooting team and we can always find open shots, so it should be there.”

The difference on this night, he said, was the same thing that makes a good team great.

“I think we were just hungrier than them. We stuck it to them for 40 minutes and we made them want to quit. That’s our game plan.”

Coach Scott Morrison said he liked what he saw, understanding that in a blowout like that, motivation could prove difficult as the game winds on.

“I think York made it easy for us by kind of playing out the second half. I’m not sure we were out best in the second half, but the game was in hand.”

Dejan Kravic led the Lions with 14 points, including a couple of dunks, and eight boards.

The Wolves take on Laurentian at the Thunderdome on Saturday night. Game time is 8 p.m.