A year ago the Lakehead Thunderwolves were all that stood between the McMaster Marauders and a berth in the OUA semifinals.
The Wolves got the better of the Marauders that day, emerging with a five-point triumph that ultimately landed Lakehead in the national championship game.
Eleven months later the high-tops are on the other feet.
The Marauders, the No. 6 team in the nation, has championship dreams of their own. And they marched into the Thunderdome Friday night and showed at least they belong in the conversation. But the Thunderwolves made them work for it.
Aaron Redpath had a game-high 22 points in downing the Wolves 85-74, a game that saw them take a 16-point lead after half and only twice let their opponent climb to within single digits the rest of the way.
Anthony McIntosh paced the Lakehead attack, scoring 19 for the Thunderwolves. Guard Dwayne Harvey added 17 as the Wolves slipped to 6-11 in the OUA West. The Mauraders (14-3) maintained top spot in the division.
“When they needed to get scores down the stretch, they hit two huge threes,” said Lakehead’s interim coach Matt Erdman, whose team’s modest two-game winning streak came to a crashing half.
“We broke down and they made the play, and that’s what a team full of veterans is going to do.”
Having cut the lead to seven on an acrobatic Josh Bell scoop and foul midway through the fourth, Joe Rocca, recruited last season by LU, only to see him land at McMaster.
The shots, which landed on top of a pair of Nathan McCarthy free throws, extended the Marauders lead back to 15, the daggers in a 10-0 run that pushed the game out of reach.
It was the early hole Lakehead couldn’t escape from, Erdman said.
“We pretty much played the game even after the first quarter. We lost by 11, we were down by 11 (after one). It shows us there that if we can kind of come out from the start, who knows what we can take out of this.”
McMaster went on a 9-2 run to close out the first, keyed by a pair of Leon Alexander baskets to end the quarter. They pushed their lead to 17 on a Rocca hoop early in the second, the final bucket in a 10-0 run that finally came to an end at the hand of a McIntosh bucket.
LU trailed 47-31 at the half and by 17 after three, but went on a 7-2 run late in the contest to pull within nine again on a Harvey trey.
The two teams will try it again on Saturday.
Erdman said they’ll try to build and learn from the loss.
“I believe in these guys and I know that the feeling in the locker room isn’t great, so hopefully they’ll be able to come back and compete right from the start.”
