LONDON, Ont. -- Thanks to Henry Tan, the Lakehead Thunderwolves have lived to see another day.
The third-year guard drained a game-winning three-pointer off a Nick Burke free-throw miss with eight seconds to go on Wednesday night and the Wolves held off a hard-charging Western Mustangs squad to advance to the second round of the OUA men’s basketball playoffs with a 60-58 triumph.
"Our guys competed and battled all night," said Thunderwolves head coach Coach Manny Furtado.
"It wasn't pretty but we'll take it. I just loved the way our guys never quit and kept on fighting for each other."
They’ll take on No. 1 seed Ryerson on Saturday in Toronto.
The Wolves led the Mustangs by as many as 18 points in the opening half, but trailed by as many as four as the contest wound down in the fourth.
Burke hit the first of two free throws to pull Lakehead within a point, but missed the second, the Wolves recovering the ball from a Western team that had played a suffocating second-half defence to erase the double-digit deficit and later take the lead.
Alex Coote had a chance to win it for the Mustangs with a last-second three-point attempt, couldn’t find his range and the Thunderwolves ran out the clock.
Backed by the red-hot shooting of rookie forward Kache Kopec, Lakehead stormed out in front of Western 32-14 in the second quarter.
But when their offence cooled, the Mustangs got hot, scoring the final six ponts of the quarter to close the gap to 12 at the half.
The host team then went on an 8-2 run to start the third, cutting the LU lead in half.
Jedson Tavernier hit from beyond the arc to pull Western within two, then tied it on a layup 90 seconds into the final period.
Peter Scholtes scored off a Tavernier steal to give the Mustangs their first lead of the contest, but the home team, which beat Lakehead by 15 last weekend, couldn’t find separation.
Burke tied it on a layup 56-56, but Western’s Greg Morrow put his team in front one final time with 19 seconds to go.
Bacarius Dinkins led the Wolves with 15 points. Kopec and Alex Robichaud finished with 14 apiece, while Burke scored 10 and grabbed nine rebounds.
Morrow, playing his final university game, led the Mustangs with 17.
In other OUA playoff action, Windsor knocked off Laurentian 82-73, Brock hammered Laurier 98-80 and Queen’s ponded Toronto 87-70.
Windsor will play McMaster in Round 2, Queen’s will take on Ottawa and Brock heads to Carleton.
