Valuable Experience Gained on Montana Trip For Thunder Men’s Bball
Posted on: Oct 15, 2013
This Thanksgiving weekend the Thunder hit the road for a 3 game swing through Montana. Stops would include Great Falls, Carroll College and Montana State Northern. First up would be the Great Falls Argos. A very high paced game would see the Argos take a 45-26 lead on the Thunder and would increase their margin to finish with an 87-58 win. Leading the way for the Thunder would be David Shantz with 14 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists on a very efficient 7/10 shooting. Chris Stoltz would add 13, also with great efficiency going 6 of 8 from the floor. Liban Abdi-Aziz chipped in with 12 off the bench. “While we had great efficiency when we had the ball tonight, we turned it over far too many times to keep ourselves in this one. We saw a high level of pressure tonight and while at times we broke it and got great looks at the rim we let a talented opponent go on extended runs at critical times,” said Coach Wood.
Saturday night the Thunder took on a tough Carroll College squad. Finding themselves down 20 early, the Thunder would mount a small push late in the first half but by the end of 40 minutes would be on the wrong end of a 99-52 score. The Thunder were led by Dallas Wright with 14 along with Rob Haack and Liban Abdi-Aziz adding 8 each.“Tonight we simply got out worked. A hungrier team beat us in every way possible, plain and simple,” stated Coach Wood.
Sunday, the Thunder would tip off a matinee against the MSUN Lights in Havre, Montana. A physical, challenging affair would see the Thunder play their best basketball of the trip. Although the final score of 59-38 might not reflect the effort, it was a well-played, hard fought game to the end. David Shantz led all scorers with 13 points in the low scoring affair. “I'm very proud of the effort today,” said Coach Wood. “We rose to the challenge following a poor effort. The point of these games in the US for us (was) to be better prepared for the intensity that we will need to have for our conference play that begins this coming weekend.”
The Thunder open the regular season at home on Saturday, October 19th when they host the SAIT Trojans. Tip off time is 8 PM.
