THUNDER BAY – The women’s basketball team made it a perfect 2-0 weekend, claiming a 77-66 victory over the Ryerson Rams on Saturday evening. Their record now improves to 3-1.
The women played a very competitive first half, up by one, 35-34 at the break. Ryerson’s first half was denoted by the play of 5th year guard Ashley MacDonald, who scored 18 in the first 20 minutes on 6-13 shooting. She would finish with an impressive 29 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals.
Lakehead showed an improving team chemistry, as they got big contributions from Lacey McNulty (Belleville, ON) and Kelsey Bardsley (Manchester, UK). McNulty had her best game of the season thus far, scoring 16 to go with 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Bardsley provided solid guard play with reliable ball handling, not to mention a smooth touch from outside (4-of-8 from three) to total 16 points.
Lindsay Druery played limited minutes due to foul trouble, but still managed a point-per-minute for 14 on the game. Carolyn Fragale scored 14 points in 29 minutes of work.
Other than MacDonald, Ryerson got production from Angela Tilk with 13 points and 7 rebounds. Tilk would eventually foul out with under 4 minutes to play, but was without question the hardest working player on the floor, who at one point crashed into the baseline wall at either end of the court on consecutive plays, without flinching an inch or slowing down.
The Lakehead ladies made their move in the third quarter, out-scoring the Rams 28-18, which is their highest single quarter point total of the season thus far. All the other quarters were either tied or within one point.
The T-Wolves shot 39% on the game (24-61) compared to the Rams who went 21 of 68 (31%) from the floor.
Coach Jon Kreiner commented, “Tonight’s win was a great team effort. Our bigs played very well together and with Druery in foul trouble. Ashley Randall came in and did a great job. I also thought Katie Ulakovic came off the bench and distributed the ball nicely tonight and Kelsey made Ryerson pay for doubling our bigs. Ashley MacDonald was super tonight and got in a rhythm early. We did a better job in the 2nd half clamping down on her but she is a very tough guard”.
The women play next at home Nov 25 and 26 versus Ottawa and Carleton.
As always, the games will be broadcast on SSN Canada and CILU Radio.