Russell rallies

The Western Mustangs switched out three of their starters from Friday night, and for 20 minutes it appeared to work.

Then Venzal Russell took over.

The second-year guard scored 10 straight points to start the third quarter, pushing Lakehead's lead to 14, and the Thunderwolves survived a 35-point performance by Western's Peter Scholtes to win for the ninth time in 10 outings, beating the Mustangs 87-66.

Russell, a native of Detroit, said it was about time he did something right on the court, taking his recent struggles to heart.
"It felt good to come back. I've been in a slump. I got (yelled at) this week in practice. My coach said my last eight games I've been terrible," said Russell, who led all Thunderwolves scorers with 25.

"So it felt good to get back on the good side of things. I needed this game for next week. We've got a tough one in Laurier."
Ah yes, the Golden Hawks, next week's opponent, who continued to roll on Saturday night, beating Brock 93-70 to maintain a share of top spot in the OUA West with the Wolves, both teams checking in with 9-1 records.

"Coach said he needs me to play good if we're going to win a national championship. So that's what I did, so hopefully it will carry over to next week, because Laurier's a tough match-up."

The coach, Scott Morrison, liked what he saw from the acrobatic Russell, who said he plans to add a few more Derrick Rose moves to his arsenal, after thrilling the Thunderdome crowd with several awe-inspiring drives to the hoop on Saturday night.

"I thought Ven had his best game since the break, today," Morrison said. "He had a couple lapses on defence in the first half, but after the half he fixed it up well. It's nice when the guys who try to make adjustments have success – and that's what he did. He definitely finished well around the hoop."

It was the Mustangs who dominated the game in its earliest stages.

Scholtes hit a three-pointer to open the scoring, and Western rushed out to an 8-1 first-quarter lead. The Wolves trailed by four after the first, but found their long-distance form in the second, Ben Johnson and Joseph Jones sinking back-to-back treys to pull the Wolves within three.

After sinking a pair of free throws to give the Wolves their first lead of the night, Ryan Thomson ended the half with a buzzer-beating three and LU took a 36-32 lead into the break.

Up 19 after three, that's when Scholtes took over, out-scoring the Wolves 13-2 to pull the Mustangs within eight and causing Morrison to call timeout to point out the reality of the situation.

"He's a bit of a paradox, because he's a left-handed post player who loves to go right. We had a tough time finding a big man who could make him go left at the top of the key there. Once he got his shot going it was tough because we had to play his drive and respect his shot and we couldn't do it," Morrison said.

Russell, who teamed with Greg Carter on several scoring plays, said Morrison warned them the second-year Scholtes was going to start scoring, admitting no one was really listening at that point.

Carter helped stem the Western tide, dropping a three to restore the lead to double digits, then following with a basket off a Russell feed. Carter returned the favour on the next trip down the court and the LU lead was back to 14.

Carter finished with 13 points, five board and five assists. Jones wound up with 16 and Thomson 10. Jermaine Bernard was the only other Western player to hit double digits, with 10.