Lakehead Exhibition

Last night we took on Lakehead University from Thunder Bay, Ontario in an exhibition game. They are a team that returns several players from their Provincial Championship (Ontario) last season and they finished 4th in the country. Lakehead had already played seven games this season and including a win on Friday night vs. UW-Stout.

The game started off with a bang for us as we got out to an 11-0 lead. Things were coming easy for us right off the bat. It was clearly a shock for Lakehead, then they woke up. I'm not exactly sure what type of run they went on but it was at least a 20-2 run. We all of a sudden looked sluggish and weren't running our offense.

We battled back and got the game back within three at the half, 44-41. We left their shooters wide open on a few occasions and they made us pay. We talked about their shooters only during pregame. Normally, we are able to talk about them more but we had limited knowledge of their players besides a few highlights on youtube and a few box scores. That's an adjustment for everyone including the coaching staff. As we get into the season we'll have full game film to show the guys. Learning experience all the way around.

The second half didn't exactly get off to the way we wanted, as we got down as many as ten points. From what I saw, the lead hovered around double figures for a little bit as each team was trading layups and/or three's. I actually didn't see the last 13 minutes of the game because I had to bring a recruit to the airport but this is the rundown that I got from everyone else:

We battled back to actually take the lead with the help of Victor Easter's defensive efforts. He was the spark we needed and he dominated play for a long stretch. He clearly got some help during this time from both Charlie Choiniere and Mike Campbell, but Vic was stirring the pot. As I was on the way back from the airport, I was getting updates on my phone, it seemed like we were getting momentum. Yet, Lakehead didn't back down.

I arrived back in Hutton with 10.2 seconds left. It was our ball on the sideline as we were down three. Coach Whitmore was just drawing up a play to get a look from three. Lakehead then fouled Mike before the ball was inbounded. He made 1 of 2, we fouled immediately on the 2nd miss. They made the first one, and then Noah Aguirre got the rebound on the second (we had no timeouts left). He took it the top of the key and had a great look from three to tie the game. The shot went in and out, and we ended up losing 98-95.

We were led by Mike Campbell's 30 points on 11-15 shooting including 8-12 from the FT line. Brandon Rieg finished with 13, Tyler Pannell had 12, and the aforementioned Victor Easter finished with 10.

There were many positives for us during the game. We got the face the most athletic team we'll play all season. We got a close game, one in which we battled back after facing some adversity early in the second half. We had two of our top recruits at the game, both of whom got to see our uptempo offense. Our offense usually takes a while to get going, I don't think we are where we need to be yet, but to put up 90+ points on an opponent the caliber of Lakehead is a good thing.

Some of the negatives to the game were that we left too many of their shooters open, even after they made one of two three's previously (that was talked about above). We shot 5-16 from 3. That's not a great number especially at home. I thought we had some good looks but they did close the gap quickly to at least get a contest. We shot 20-30 from the FT line. Getting to the line 30 times is exactly where we want to be but we have to shoot better than 67%. We should shoot at least 72% from the line with the shooters we have. With the 3's and FT, we make two more 3's, we win. We make four more FTs, we win. Simple as that.

We turned the ball over 25 times. We had 17 in the first half, so we clearly settled down in the second but we should be have 17 turnovers at the most for the game. We will probably turn the ball over because of increased possessions but a number in the 20's isn't acceptable. As a staff, we aren't dumb enough(maybe some think we are) to believe that we'll turn it over less than ten times a game. Especially at the tempo we want to play at. We got outrebounded by 10, 47-37. We lack size to an extent, so will need to get help from our guards to get in there and grab boards. We leaked out too much instead of concentrating on rebounding. That potentially could be a trend throughout the season but we need to get bodies on someone and attack the ball off the rim.

Another positive is that is the first time we have played against someone else with the exception of our six alums. It'll be a great game to learn from. As time goes on, our guys and our coaching staff will make the adjustments in order for us to have a successful season. We'll watch some film on Monday and then get ready for our St. Cloud State scrimmage on Tuesday afternoon. SCSU will be another great test, as it is every year.