Settling for second

The senior send-off didn’t exactly work out as planned.

Perhaps it was the hour-long delay while the Thunderdome crowd feted six graduating Lakehead Thunderwolves. Perhaps it was the emotion that went along with playing in their final regular-season home game, their friends and families cheering them on.  

Or perhaps they just got outplayed.

Take a little from columns A, B and C, toss it together and the result is a 64-56 loss to the No. 4 Windsor Lancers, their dreams of top spot in the OUA West dashed once and for all.

In a nutshell, it came down to second-quarter play.

The Wolves, who trailed by two after 10 minutes, found themselves down 10 at the break after Windsor held them in check, out-scoring them 16-8 to take a 36-26 lead.

Try as they might, a combination of sloppy play that led to turnovers, poor shots and too many misses at the free-throw line led to their downfall.

It was an emotional night, said fifth-year pivot Yoosrie Salhia, who put up yet another double-double, scoring 16 points and hauling in 15 rebounds in the loss.

“I don’t want to say we didn’t play hard. We played really hard. It was just we lacked execution when it counted. That’s what happened,” Salhia said.

Though technically the Wolves (12-6) can still catch the Lancers (14-4) in the standings, because Windsor outscored Lakehead by two points, they’ll take the tiebreaker and thus clinched the OUA West with the win.

That still leaves Lakehead with plenty to play for next weekend at McMaster, pride first and foremost.

“We’re going for second and all we have to do is get ourselves to the final four and give ourselves a chance to make nationals again.”
While neither team shot the lights out, when it counted Windsor scored – especially in the fourth quarter, when Lakehead managed to pull within seven.

Enrico Diloreto, who led all scorers with 22, buried a three with Lakehead defenders in his face, restoring a 10-point cushion with less than five minutes to go.

Still the Wolves wouldn’t give up. Thunder Bay’s Matt Schmidt, in his final season, drained a three with 2:15 to play to make it 60-55. Teammate Ben Johnson, another of the departing six, stole the ball but was called for travelling while lying on his back, another missed opportunity.

Joseph Jones, also honoured before the game, was fouled on their next possession and went to the line with a chance to make it a one-possession game. But he only managed to hit one of two free throws and then Windsor’s Michael Petrella, who only hit two shots all night, dropped a three-pointer that pushed the Lancers lead back to seven.

“Just a massive onslaught of turnovers killed us tonight. I thought we didn’t have our best game. We definitely didn’t shoot the ball that well. But at the end of the day they took 15 more shots than we did and that’s a direct result of our gigantic (23) amount of turnovers,” Lakehead coach Scott Morrison said.

“I don’t know what was wrong. Maybe the guys were tight, maybe a little nervous after the ceremony and we really just kicked it around.”

Beyond the arc: Greg Carter, the reigning CIS defensive player of the year, scored three points and collected two steals in his final home game … Fifth-year senior Brendan King, the oft-injured forward, did not see any action after being honoured before the game … Sharp-shooting forward Ryan Thomson fouled out with three minutes to play. He finished with 10 points.