THUNDER BAY – A lot has to happen for the Lakehead Thunderwolves to miss the OUA men’s basketball playoffs.
But there still remains a possibility they’ll be on the outside looking in when all is said and done on Saturday.
On Friday the Wolves (6-12) ensured they’re still in the mix, rallying from 12 down in the fourth quarter to secure a 66-62 home-court win over the Waterloo Warriors (6-13), powered by a 10-point fourth-quarter effort from Wais Mohamed.
Thrust into a starring role with Darnell Curtin, Mor Menashe and Henry Tan sidelined with illness or injury, the fourth-year Ottawa-born guard buried a three pointer with three-and-a-half minutes to play in the fourth.
He’d hit two more balls down the stretch, but it was Bacarius Dinkins who put the Thunderwolves ahead for good, after Waterloo’s Simon Petrov dropped a three to give the Warriors a 62-61 lead with 26.5 seconds in regulation.
Dinkins then put it away with a quick bucket off an inbounds pass, drawing a foul and making the free throw to put the game out of reach with 2.5 seconds to play, LU making the most of three fouls to give on Waterloo's previous possession before forcing a turnover.
“They needed someone to step up and I had to come through,” said Mohamed, a fourth-year guard who arrived at Lakehead from the Algoma Thunderbirds.
“It’s one of my last two games, as a senior I’m graduating. I had to go out with a bang and try to help my team so we can make the playoffs. And we did it, hopefully.”
Not quite.
Coach Manny Furtado, originally thinking the Thunderwolves had clinched, later learned they could miss if Brock beats Windsor, Western beats McMaster and Waterloo beats Guelph – and Lakehead loses to Laurier.
Any of the four not occur and the T-Wolves will get in.
Friday’s gut-check win made it possible.
“All year we’ve had those games and we’ve been on the other end of it. We had to get some defensive stops and we did. We got some rebounds when we needed to and some guys stepped up. I’m really proud of Wais. He’s been struggling all year,” Furtado said.
“You can ask our guys. I told him, ‘We’re going to need you tonight.’ And look at him in the fourth quarter.”
Guard Kache Kopec helped lead the comeback in the third, Lakehead trailing 36-24 at the break.
Kopec buried a pair of three-pointers and collected eight of his 14 points in the period as the Wolves closed the gap to five.
“We’ve been in that spot a couple of times and sometimes we’ve gotten the win and sometimes we haven’t. It’s a good team win,” Kopech said.
“It’s good to step up. It’s a huge win.”
It’s a game of runs, he added. At times the Thunderwolves looked a little gassed, but found their energy in the fourth.
“We came out in the second half, we regrouped, hit some shots … got some stops and that was key.”
Petrov led all scorers with 22.
