Pack men dominate on the glass, rebound against Johnson and Wales

PUEBLO, Colo. - An absolutely dominant effort on the boards helped to make up for less than stellar shooting, as the ThunderWolves earned their first win of the season with a 73-61 win over Johnson and Wales in the Al Kaly Classic Saturday.

The Pack out-rebounded the Wildcats 44-22, with 10-plus rebound nights coming from Chris Childress and Brian Sewald, who set his career mark with 11 boards.

It offset a night that saw the Pack shoot just .364 from the field, compared to Johnson and Wales' .400. The Pack's shooting Saturday was an upgrade over its .352 performance in a loss to Newman Friday, but it was their inside defense that did the real trick in the win.

"We just have to shoot a better percentage from the floor," Pack coach Patrick Eberhart said. "If we can't do that, we won't be winning. We took a lot of threes and long-range shots, and we need to work on getting shots in the paint if we're going to have a chance to do well."

Senior Julien Franklin served as quite a catalyst for the Pack, going 5-for-10 from behind the arc and putting up 23 points. His big threes always seemed to come at a time when the Wildcats were scratching back into the game.

The ThunderWolves will take to the road this coming week, heading to Omaha to take on Nebraska-Omaha and St. Cloud State in the University of Nebraska-Omaha Tournament.