THUNDER BAY – Sports – The pre-season home opener didn’t go as planned for the home team, as Lakehead lost 66-58 to U of Winnipeg Wesmen. Despite the loss, Lakehead did show a lot of fight throughout the game, out-rebounding Winnipeg 47-40, with Sierra Guy grabbing 10 and Lindsay Druery 16. Druery was also the top scoring Thunderwolf with 14. Winnipeg was led by sophomore Stephanie Kleysen with 17 points, 14 rebounds and 5 assists.
In a slow start to the game, Lakehead got down early 10-3, before scoring some hoops to make it 16-10 after ten minutes. Halftime score favored Winnipeg 34-27, as both teams used full court presses to pressure their opponent into rushed shots. And it worked, as neither team shot particularly well, Winnipeg hitting at a rate of 31%, and Lakehead only connecting on 24% of its field goals.
These trends continued through the second half, as Winnipeg maintained a 6 point cushion for most of the 4th quarter and cruised to victory. Lakehead did hit a 3-pointer at the final buzzer to make the margin of defeat 8.
Jon Kreiner stated, “Tough game, tough first quarter but there were some improvements as well. Winnipeg did a great job of controlling the tempo and our inexperienced perimeter play was exposed. Ashley Randall played well for us tonight and Sierra Guy stepped up and played great defense against Amy Ogidan holding her to 3 points on the night. Tomorrow we will need to have better ball movement against Winnipeg’s pressure and do a better job with our defensive transition”.
The two teams rematch tomorrow evening at 6:00pm, following the John Zanatta Alumni Games that begin at 12:45.
Lakehead vs. Winnipeg will be broadcast on SSN Canada, www.ssncanada/games