THUNDER BAY – Lequan Cseri-Hylton had the game in his hands, but came up short on Saturday.
The Lakehead Thunderwolves guard, one of the sharpest-shooters on the men’s basketball team, stepped to the free-throw line on Saturday afternoon with two seconds on the clock, his squad trailing by a single point.
Hit one and he’d probably send the game to overtime. Hit them both and odds are the Wolves could have pencilled another non-conference win in their books.
Instead he missed them both, handing the visiting Algoma Thunderbirds an 86-85 triumph and a weekend sweep at the C.J. Sanders Fieldhouse.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said veteran guard Nick Burke, who finished with 19 points, tying Kache Kopec for the team lead in the matinee contest.
“We had a chance, two shots with the game on the line and one of our best shooters. It’s the exact position we want to be in to end the game.”
Kopec was equally disappointed.
“We just didn’t get it done,” said Kopec, who made 7-of-12 shots he took against the Thunderbirds, a day after hitting just once in 10 shot attempts.
It was a wild finish, neither side willing to blink first, in a final quarter that ultimately featured six lead changes.
Darnell Curtin sank a three with just over two minutes to play in regulation to give the Wolves an 83-81 advantage, but Nathan Riley stole the ball and went in for the game-tying dunk.
Burke took the ball to the net, lost it, recovered and put the ball up an in, giving Lakehead an 85-83 edge with 37.6 to play, only to have Jermaine Lyle – who led all scorers with 27 points – bring Algoma back to even ground with 29 seconds left on the clock.
Lakehead dialled up a final play, but it came apart when Tarik Smith-James’ shot was blocked by Lyle. A foul called on LU’s Kingsley Campbell-Smith sent Reng Gum to the line. He missed his first free-throw attempt, but hit the second, the point proving to be the game-winner.
“I guess it’s better than last night,” said Thunderwolves coach Manny Furtado, a day after his team lost by 26 to the same Algoma squad.
“What more could you ask for? We had a chance to win it with two seconds left (with) two free throws. It’s what we practice every day, at the end of practice” Furtado said. “It’s a pressure situation and you’ve got to hit them to win the game and we didn’t.”
The Wolves, who took a 41-40 lead into the half, have to clean things up in the defensive zone and value every possession like it’s their last, Burke said.
“We have to execute at both ends of the court because it can came down to the last shot like it did today – so everything matters,” said Burke, adding the team is working on forcing the opposition to their weak side to keep their top scorers at bay.
The Thunderwolves head to Manitoba next weekend to wrap up non-conference play.
