Men’s basketball team comes up short in OT nail-biter

Lakehead’s men’s basketball team lost a close match that went to overtime against the Guelph Gryphons by a score of 91-87 on Saturday night. The loss drops Lakehead to 2-10.

“It’s another difficult pill to swallow for this group,” Thunderwolves head coach Ryan Thomson said.

Lakehead held a five-point lead with just over a minute left in regulation, up 76-71, until Guelph took a two-point lead with less than 10 seconds remaining. Alston Harris hit a jump shot with four seconds remaining to tie it at 78-78, forcing overtime. Guelph won the extra period 13-9, bringing the final score to 91-87.

“We played well in the first half, with some of our adjustments from the yesterday’s game,” Thomson said, “but in the second half it came down to the same that that killed us last night: our defensive rebounding.”

Lakehead won the first two quarters on Saturday night, and held a 43-30 lead going into the half. Guelph won the battle on the boards, grabbing 46 rebounds to Lakehead’s 35.

The Thunderwolves were paced by a variety of contributors, with five different players scoring in double digits. A number of Thunderwolves faced foul trouble, as the team collected a total of 28 fouls. Alston Harris finished with 18 points, 8 assists, and 3 steals, and senior guard Nick Burke filled the stat sheet with 12 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals, 1 assist, and 1 block.

“We will watch the film as a group, but our focus has shifted to Windsor, an athletic group that can put up points in a hurry,” Thomson said.

Thunderwolves basketball returns to the Thunderdome next weekend for the first home games of 2019. The men will face the 3-9 Windsor Lancers on January 11th and 12th. Windsor comes to Thunder Bay on a three-game losing streak.

All basketball games are available via webcast courtesy of OUA.tv