THUNDER BAY – Bounced from the top 10 despite winning six straight to open the post-Christmas break, it looked like the Lakehead Thunderwolves were going to get bounced off their home court on Friday night.
The Toronto Metropolitan Bold, a team that took out the No. 2 Carleton Ravens last month, opened a 19-1 lead to start their OUA men’s basketball contest at the C.J. Sanders Fieldhouse, and led by as many as 25 in the second quarter.
But don’t ever count the Thunderwolves out.
Not this season, anyway.
The Wolves corrected their defensive lapses as the first half gave way to the second, and mounted a furious comeback, marching all the way back and beyond to claim a stunning 87-81 win over the visiting Bold.
“We came out slow, which is not what we tend to do,” said LU guard Michael Okafor, who led all scorers with 21 points.
“Everyone contributed, everyone rallied and we knew that we couldn’t be down like that in front of the home crowd.”
Coach Ryan Thomson, whose team improved to 14-3, said the team was so amped to take on a team of TMU’s magnitude, that it might have backfired on them in the first half.
“We just couldn’t execute to start and dug ourselves a hole,” Thomson said. “We wanted to do the right thing. We just couldn’t execute it.”
It was resilience that turned things around, the never-say-die attitude that permeates the LU locker room these days.
“We can’t let our offence dictate our defence. We’re always talking about let’s get stops so we can run and get great shots. Tonight it felt like to start the game, our defence was relying on our offence,” Thomson said.
Nothing seemed to drop, Alston Harris sinking a free throw for the T-Wolves only point in the first five-and-a-half minutes of play.
Meanwhile, Simon Chamberlain, Lincoln Rosebush and Ankit Choudhury, who topped the Bold with 18 points, seemed to sink every shot they launched. Even after Tyler Sagl hit a bucket to end a 17-0 TMU run, the Bold continued their hot-handed ways, and took a 33-17 lead into the second.
The Wolves struggles were never more evident than when Dylan Morrison was sent to the free throw line three times – and missed six straight shots. But Morrison was able to cap a 10-0 LU run later in the second, hitting a pair from the charity stripe to the delight of the full house on hand, and by the half, the TMU lead was cut to 54-40.
The Bold led by as many as 14 midway through the third, but slowly the Wolves began to chip away and Sagl hit a late three that cut the gap to just five.
Cue the completed comeback in the fourth. Laoui Msambya tied the game 74-74 at the 5:18 mark, and though the Bold would twice more take the lead, including an 81-79 advantage with 1:20 left in regulation, the home side scored the final eight points of the night to grab the win.
After hitting one of two from the line, Harris blew through the TMU defensive web to give the Wolves the lead for good, 82-81. Lakehead did the rest at the free-throw line, Okafor hitting three of four and Msambya burying two more with 16 seconds to go to make it a two-possession game.
“It means a lot, but at the same time, we’ve got one more tomorrow, so the job’s not done. It’s good to get a win like this, especially down like that in the first half,” Okafor said.
Tip-off for Saturday's rematch is 8 p.m.
