DRYDEN – Sports – Jon Kreiner’s women’s basketball team came away with two hotly contested victories over the weekend versus the University of Manitoba, winning 93 – 87 on Friday evening and 89 – 85 on Saturday afternoon. The games were played at the Dryden High School gym, thus splitting the travel time for the opposing teams and providing Dryden women’s basketball fans some hometown CIS action.
Friday Game: Thunderwolves 93 – Bisons 87 (OT)
In a game that stood tied at 84 at the end of regulation, guard Katie Ulakovic (Thunder Bay, ON) led the charge in overtime with 6 points to lead Lakehead to a 9-3 advantage in the extra frame. Fifth year senior Lindsay Druery (Smithville, ON) had a huge game with 26 points and 22 rebounds, very nearly out-rebounding the entire Bison team, which only managed 24 rebounds to Lakehead’s total of 48. Fourth year transfer Carolyn Fragale kicked in 19 points in her return to the Thunderwolf lineup. Guards Sierra Guy (Totonto, ON) and Ayse Kalkan (Winnipeg, MB) were very active on the glass, pulling down 8 rebounds each. Lakehead led 46-44 at halftime.
Jon Kreiner on Friday’s game, “I am very happy with the win. Our team played hard played together. Lindsay was huge tonight but Katie hit some big pull ups in OT and Sierra played great defense on Mubo [Illelaboye] which lead us to victory. We have a lot of work to do defensively but we did a great job on the boards and found a way to grind out a hard fought win. Building on this we hope to improve our defense and ball movement”.
Saturday Game: Thunderwolves 89 – Bisons 85
Once again, Thunderwolves All Star Lindsay Druery went to work, scoring 32 points, pulling down 15 rebounds to go with 5 assists. Guard Katie Ulakovic put her jumper to use scoring 15 points to go with 4 helpers. Sophomore Ashley Randall (Hamilton, ON) chipped in with 10 points. This time out Manitoba was led by Mubo Illelaboye with 21 points.
Coach Jon Kreiner liked his team’s defense, but would also like to see it cleaned up a bit. “At times today we played better defensively but we fouled too many times leading to 34 ft attempt,” said Kreiner. “Lindsay was awesome again but we need to get her the ball more. Manitoba did a great job of fighting back after multiple leads, we need to learn how to work the clock better with the lead. We are looking forward to playing at home next weekend vs Winnipeg in our alumni weekend”.
Lakehead Women (and Men) play host to the University of Winnipeg Wesmen next Friday-Saturday, Sept 30 and Oct 1, as part of the Lakehead Athletics
Homecoming Weekend. For full details of the weekend’s event’s see: www.thunderwolves.ca/walloffame.