Scott Morrison said his starting five had a flat practice on Thursday and weren't much better come game-time Friday night.
Luckily he's got reserves like Adam Johnson, Nathan Wainwright and Matt Schmidt to fall back on.
Johnson, a first-year import from Baltimore, torched the Waterloo Warriors for 26 points, adding nine boards and four steals, almost singlehandedly willing the No. 2 Wolves to a home-court 84-74 triumph.
Wainwright buried four three-pointers for a 12-point effort off the bench, while Schmidt came on and drained nine points in just 11 minutes of action.
LU's starters – Greg Carter, Ben Johnson, Ryan Thomson, Yoosrie Salhia and Venzal Russell – combined for just 32 points, including a dismal two-point effort from Salhia.
It was the kind of game Morrison knew Adam Johnson had in him, but hadn't yet seen since bringing him on board last fall.
The 6-foot-6 sophomore, in his second year of eligibility, said the adjustment to the Lakehead style hasn't been an easy one.
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"I'm trying to go hard in practice. I'm starting to get a lot of shot reps up, so that's helped a lot. The team effort period has just helped me get along."
"It was OK. The win felt better than the 26 points. If I had 26 with a loss, it wouldn't have felt as good," Adam Johnson said.
It felt good watching it, particularly in the second quarter when he exploded, took a close game and helped the Pack build a double-digit advantage.
At one point he scored nine straight points for Lakehead, including back-to-back-to-back hoops that shoved the Warriors back on their heels, coming off a quarter that saw them take a late lead on the Wolves, only to have Wainwright nail a three in the dying seconds to give LU a 17-15 lead after 10 minutes.
"He's been working hard since Christmas, I'll give him that," Morrison said. "He had a rough first semester getting accustomed to the way we do things. I thought he's made a good effort since Christmas to toe the line and hopefully the result of his hard work is a couple of games like that.
"We really needed him tonight."
Wainwright, a native of Kapuskasing, Ont., hit another three to start the second quarter, landed a third late in the quarter to stretch the LU lead to 13.
"If you've ever watched a practice, that's what I do in practice, so that's what I've got to do in a game. I just got a little extra look today because our starters came out a little slow," Wainwright said. "That's their first bad game of the year, so they're allowed to have one. I know they'll bounce back tomorrow."
Waterloo (4-13), may be a last-place squad, but playing without top scorer Cam McIntyre, they gave Lakehead all they had and then some, putting to within three points in the third.
But the hot-handed Wolves, who failed to score for the first four minutes of the contest, found their range again, pulling away and going up by as much as 14 in the fourth, before settling for the 10-point margin of victory.
Mark Wright led the Warriors with 19. Three other Waterloo players hit double digits.
Lakehead (15-2) pulled back into a tie for top spot in the OUA West with Laurier, who edged Windsor 79-77 earlier this week.
They'll take on Waterloo at the Thunderdome again on Saturday night. Game time is approximately 8 p.m.
