THUNDER BAY – Turnovers killed any chance the Lakehead Thunderwolves had of pulling a home-court upset over the Queen’s Gaels.
The Wolves gave the ball away 17 times on Friday night and couldn’t hold onto a seven-point lead they’d built in third quarter, dropping a third straight game with a 64-58 loss at the hands of a Queen’s squad that was ranked to start the season, only to start 4-3 and fall out of the top 10.
The miscues must be fixed, said first-year forward Kevin Ndahiro, who topped Lakehead with 18 points and five rebounds, his team giving up the lead for good on the third possession of the fourth – though they never fell behind by more than two possessions down the stretch.
It wasn’t a win, but Ndahiro, a 6-foot-8, fourth-year transfer from North Alabama State, said the team is on the brink of a breakthrough, despite suffering through three straight defeats to fall to 2-5 in the OUA West.
“The chemistry is definitely getting better. We’re very close to clicking and finally figuring it out. This was another learning experience and I just feel like we’re very close,” the Ottawa native said.
“We’ve still got to fix some errors on defence and on offence there were some turnovers that we could have prevented. I’m pretty sure we had the lead by seven or eight, so once we get that kind of lead we’ve got to make sure we keep the lead and expand the lead. That’s just experience and something we’ve got to learn, for sure.”
Second-year Thunderwolves coach Ryan Thomson agreed the turnovers were the difference.
“Neither team shot the ball particularly well. I don’t know whether that was an off night for both teams or good defence, we won’t know until we watch the film again,” Thomson said. “But 17 turnovers is just too many.
“It’s just too many lost possessions. They took 10 more shots than us and that’s what it’s the result of.”
Queen’s led by five after one, but the Wolves cut their deficit to one at the half, trailing 34-33.
It was all LU in the early stages of the fourth, Ndahiro scoring two of the four buckets in an 8-0 run that gave them a 41-34 advantage, their largest lead of the night.
They clung to a one-point lead after three, then traded the lead with the Gaels twice to open the fourth before Tanner Graham, who led the Gaels with a game-high 20 points, drained a three-pointer to give Queen’s a 49-47 lead.
Three times down the stretch LU pulled within a basket, Noah Traylor, Alston Harris and Lock Lam scoring to keep it a one-possession game.
But after being unable to net the equalizer, the Gaels stretched their lead, first to four and then to six, a Harris turnover in the final minute ending any hope for an improbable comeback.
Traylor finished with eight and Jared Kreiner had six, dropping a pair from beyond the arc in the second, both times pulling the Thunderwolves within three.
Lakehead takes on York on Saturday night.
