THUNDER BAY – It was a basketball game that had just everything.
There was a buzzer beater from a step across half-court and 19 lead changes.
The hometown team’s best player put up 27 points, while the visitor’s posted one point better, finishing with 28.
Unfortunately one side had to lose.
It was a turnover fueled 11-0 fourth-quarter run by the McMaster Marauders that proved to be the difference in their 90-85 OUA men’s basketball win over the host Lakehead Thunderwolves on Friday night at the C.J. Sanders Fieldhouse.
On the night the Wolves (2-17) turned the ball over 19 times, 10 more than the Marauders (5-14), who kept pace with Algoma Thunderbirds in the race for the sixth and final playoff berth in the OUA West.
Fifth-year guard Mor Menashe, who had 11 first-quarter points, including heaving up a successful three-point prayer as the clock raced toward zero to end the opening period, said it was their transition defence that proved most costly on the night.
“Especially in the first half,” said Menashe, who topped the 20-point mark for the sixth time since the Christmas break.
“We just allowed their guards to get comfortable, get to the rim, get fouled and make shots. The second thing was turnovers. We had 19 turnovers and down the stretch you can’t turn it over that much. Nineteen is unacceptable.”
Interim coach Ryan Thomson, who took over the reins in January, said his team was competitive, but the damage was self-inflicted, a trend of late.
“We put them on the free-throw line in the fourth quarter and they shot 16 free throws. We had 19 turnovers in the game. Those two things are going to kill you no matter what,” Thomson said.
While the Wolves looked chaotic in the fourth, that’s not really what bothered the coach.
“We want to play sort of frenetic, but we need to be able to do it and be composed at the same time. Tonight we just didn’t. Their pressure to us in the second half,” Thomson said.
Lakehead jumped in front 14-6 early in the first, but needed Menashe’s improbable shot at the buzzer to escape with a 25-25 tie.
Even he couldn’t believe it dropped.
“I just saw four seconds on the clock. I just got the ball somehow, from Jack (Bull) I think. I just turned and heard, ‘shoot it, shoot it, shoot it.’ I just threw it and had no idea if it was going to hit the stands or if it was going to go to the rim or it was going to hit somebody,” Menashe said. “But it went in.”
Lakehead trailed 42-40 at the break, but erased their deficit in the third, outscoring McMaster 26-21. Menashe was at his best late in the period, stealing the ball on back-to-back Marauders possessions that led to bucket and a 59-56 advantage for the home side, the edge they’d take into the fourth.
Miles Seward completed a rare four-point play early in the final quarter to push McMaster back in front. He’d finish with 22, secondly only to David McCullough who led all scorers with 28.
An 11-0 run stretched McMaster’s lead to nine, but Darnell Curtin drained a three and sank the ensuing foul shot to pull LU within five.
It was as close as the Thunderwolves would get.
The two teams tip off again on Saturday night. Game time is 8 p.m. The women play at 6 p.m.
