THUNDER BAY — Chris Sagl says when the Lakehead Thunderwolves play together as a team, good things are going to happen.
Last Friday night, they didn’t, and came out on the wrong end of an 86-76 defeat at the hands of the Toronto Metropolitan Bold. In Saturday’s rematch, they did gel as a group, and it resulted in an 86-78 win against a team that finished 14-8 last season and is always a tough test at home.
“That’s more of our goal this weekend, to share the ball a little bit more and play off each other a little bit and just create shots for each other,” said Sagl, who put up 21 points in Friday’s loss and on Tuesday was named the men’s basketball athlete of the month for October.
Despite the loss of a number of key players, including Michael Okafor and Dylan Morrison — both of whom are expected to be at the Thunderdome this weekend when LU hosts the York Lions — Sagl said the goal remains the same, getting to the national championship.
“We want to do it this year, and it would be nice. I think it’s going to be my brother’s last year, so it would be nice to get there with him,” said Sagl, days after his older brother Tyler put up 23 in Saturday’s win.
“We definitely have the talent. We had a bunch of guys step up, like me and my brother. Laoui (Msambya) is still doing great. Jared (Kreiner), Chume (Nwigwe), they’re doing great. And Harold (Santacruz) made a huge improvement, so I think we’ve got a very good chance, as long as we keep working hard and we play together.”
Thunderwolves coach Ryan Thomson said Santacruz has made tremendous strides over the offseason and is ready to step into a much bigger role in 2023-24.
The Spanish import put up an impressive 16-point, nine rebound effort in his regular-season debut last Friday, adding six points and five boards as an encore on Saturday.
“Harold didn’t play much last year in his freshman year. He was only 17, 18 to start the year for us last year. He’s been great for us, has started every game, and he’s going to be in our starting five going forward,” Thomson said.
“His improvement has been huge. He’s a lot more confidence this year. He’s playing stronger with the ball. He’s rebounding and talking, which is what we need from that five spot.”
Thomson said he’s looking for an all-around improvement from the T-Wolves ball handlers, who got bogged down by TMU switching off and led to too many mistakes, especially in their season-opener.
“There weren’t really much in the way of adjustments for Saturday, other than continuing to play together and being disciplined. I think this week, that’s got to be the attitude that we take forth with us — that everything is about being together, playing together, sharing the ball, communicating and effort and executing defensively,” he said.
There’s always room to improve, Thomson added.
“I think for us, it’s just continuing to work to get the best shot. We have guys that are talented scorers who can get to their spots, but we want to work together to get the best shot for our team, not just for me, every possession. If we can continue to that I think we can always be in a position to score points and to win.”
