Game Preview: Basketball – Lakehead vs. Ottawa Gee Gees

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Game Day Preview: Lakehead Thunderwolves vs. Ottawa Gee Gees | January 10th 2025

Date: Friday, January 10th, 2025

Time: 6pm Women’s | 8pm Men’s

Venue: Thunderdome

Stream: OUA TV

Tickets: https://luathletics.lakeheadu.ca/GuestPass/GetProducts

Men’s Basketball:

The Lakehead Men’s team take on the Ottawa Gee Gees in their opening home game of 2025. The Thunderwolves (10-1) head into the game first in the OUA Central Division, and coming off a victory against Carleton in the last OUA game of 2024. Ottawa (10-2) also finished 2024 off with a win against their cross-town rivals the Gee Gees, and sit 2nd in the OUA East Division.

The Thunderwolves will hope to continue their strong start to the season, which has be characterized by a strong offensive showing from the squad which sees the team sit 2nd in the OUA for points per game. The Wolves’ will have to lock in on defence to keep Ottawa’s triple threat of Ankit Choudhary (#1), Jacques-Mélaine Guemeta (#35), Justin Ndjock-Tadjore (#10) quiet on offence.

Ottawa came away with the win last season at Montpetit, winning 97- 81. This will be the only match-up against Ottawa in the regular season for the Thunderwolves.

This should be a top matchup with both teams sitting near the top of both the OUA and USPORTS rankings – it promises to be an exciting start to the rest of the season.

Stat Leaders:

• Scoring
  • Wolves: Nathan Bilamu – 19.7 ppg | Ottawa: Ankit Choudhary – 17.3 ppg
• Assists
  • Wolves: Chris Sagl – 6.8 apg | Ottawa: Brock Newton – 3.0 apg
• Rebounds
  • Wolves: Harold Santacruz – 8.0 rpg | Ottawa: Jacques-Mélaine Guemeta – 7.1 rpg

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Women’s Basketball:

The Thunderwolves women’s team (2-9) will take on the (10-2) Gee-Gee’s at 6pm on Friday and will look to get more wins in the column as they head into 2025.

Despite some strong performances in the first half of the season, wins have been difficult to come by in what was a tough start to the 2024/25 schedule.

Last year’s matchup saw the Thunderwolves lose out in the capital by 8pts, pushing the Gee-Gee’s to the final seconds of the game before the game lead was extended.

The Thunderwolves sit 5th in the OUA Central Division, while Ottawa sit 2nd in the OUA East Division.

Stat Leaders:

• Scoring
  • Wolves: Ally Burke – 12.8 ppg | Ottawa: Natsuki Szczokin- 16.0 ppg
• Assists
  • Wolves: Ally Burke – 3.8 apg | Ottawa: Natsuki Szczokin- 4.0 apg
• Rebounds
  • Wolves: Kelly-Ann Coulombe – 8.1 rpg | Ottawa: Allie McCarthy – 7.1 rpg