THUNDER BAY – SPORTS – Bacarius Dinkins is finding his touch on the inside, and there’s not much any team has been able to do about it recently. The big man from Jonesville Florida scored 27 points on top of 15 rebounds to lead the plucky Lakehead Thunderwolves past the CIS #4 ranked McMaster Marauders.
“Our guys battled all week in practice, right up to tonight, right to the fourth quarter” said coach Manny Furtado after the game. “Limiting that team to 67 points when they average 88, making some clutch shots down the stretch, I’m really happy and proud of these guys the way they battled.”
Bacarius Dinkins (photo left) went unchallenged most of the game in the post. McMaster didn’t send any double teams until later in the game. The only person that slowed Dinkins down was himself, as he picked up two quick fouls in the first quarter, and sat a good spell of the second quarter on the bench with three fouls. His 27 points came in 25 minutes of total court time.
When Dinkins was on the bench, fellow posts Jack Bull and Holelsky (Mike) Theodore picked up the slack against the Marauder bigs.
The 6’8″ Australian Bull finished with 6 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.
Lakehead out-scored McMaster 25-9 in the final quarter to erase the deficit and took the lead with under four minutes to play.
Alex Robichaud, Nick Burke and Darnell Curtin all hit key three pointers late in the game to push Lakehead over the top. A huge rebounding effort late in the game was also key, with the ‘Wolves out-rebounding Mac 15-4 in the final quarter, and 44-34 on the game.
For McMaster, Aaron Redpath and Leon Alexander scored 15 points apiece, with Conor Gilmore scoring 14 points. The trio of Marauders combined to go 15-of-39 from the field, and 7-of-10 from the free throw line.
The two teams rematch tonight at 8pm.
