Ben Johnson’s brother should make fun of him a little more often.
Told by his sibling that he didn’t play well Friday night, the Pictou, N.S. native had all guns firing on Saturday, dropping 29 points to lead the Lakehead Thunderwolves men’s basketball team to an easy 92-61 preseason victory over the visiting Winnipeg Wesmen.
Johnson, who played all but the final seconds of the opening half, scored just six points in Friday’s victory and said he had something to prove.
His coach, Scott Morrison, liked what he saw.
“That was good to see because we’re really relying on him to be more of an outside threat and more of a guy teams are worried about and kind of cheating to,” said Morrison, after his team won its second straight non-conference contest, in its final appearance at the Thunderdome until mid-November.
“Tonight he was able to knock down his looks. Next time, hopefully, if people are taking away his looks he’ll be able to penetrate and create for others.”
Johnson, in his second season with the Wolves, was six-of-eight from three-point territory and seven-of-eight from the free-throw line, in posting his highest single-game point total in a Thunderwolves uniform.
It was Johnson who rallied the Wolves after a slow start, burying a pair of threes to close an early double-digit gap, and it was Johnson who nailed a trio of treys in the third quarter as Lakehead pulled away for good, stretching a 16-point halftime lead to 19 before the bench took over and widened the gap even further.
None benefited more from the lopsided score than Nathan Wainwright and Anthony McIntosh, both of whom showed Morrison plenty of promise.
Wainwright drained four three-pointers in the fourth quarter, while McIntosh, who missed all of last season with a torn ACL, had eight points and three boards and played nearly half the one-sided contest.
McIntosh said it’s simply a matter of listening to the coach and buying into a plan that took the Wolves to nationals the past two seasons.
“It’s a great feeling when everybody does that. It adds lots of depth to the bench and everybody got to come out today,” the Ottawa native said.
The 6-foot-6 forward wants to make the most of his opportunity.
“I sat out last year from an injury and I’m adjusting to my new body,” he said. “I’ll go for a rebound and I’ll be about a foot under it. My injury is teaching me how to adapt and do other things well, like box out. It just feels good to be out there.”
Morrison liked what he saw in the final three quarters, but as easy as the win looks on paper, there were still a few flaws in the game plan.
“You hate to nitpick when you win by 30, but the scoring in the first and third quarters, they were over 20 points. In the second and fourth quarters we held them to under 15, which is our goal. Mainly we talked about doing the good things that we did well, but doing them over four quarters and not getting sloppy,” Morrison said.
“We’ve got to try to be solid all the time and just kind of exploit our chances when we get them.”
The Wolves trailed 19-18 after 10 minutes, but a Johnson three minutes into the second quarter put the Wolves ahead for good.
Venzal Russell scored back-to-back hoops that stretched the lead to eight, then up 10, rookie Adam Johnson dunked off a dish from Ben Johnson, upping the lead to 12, part of a 15-1 run.
The Wolves continue non-conference play next weekend with a pair of games against the University of Brandon.
