THUNDER BAY – Sports – The Lady ‘Wolves Swept the Western Mustangs with a thrilling finish. The Lakehead University women’s basketball team came away with a weekend sweep of the Western Mustangs, winning 64-63 on Saturday evening thanks to some last second heroics courtesy of Lacey McNulty and Lindsay Druery.
The majority of the game was back and forth, with both teams exchanging leads, but none ever exceeding 10 points. Western star Laura Dally, who had been battling illness on Friday, seemed to be somewhat back into form, scoring 16 points in 30 minutes. Guard Jenny Vaughan was near impossible to stop for any defenders that coach Jon Kreiner assigned to her, as she scored 17 and grabbed 7 rebounds.
Lakehead had four players score in double figures, with Lacey McNulty leading the pack with a huge 12 point and 16 rebound outing to go with 2 steals. Lindsay Druery had a game-high 19 points, while Ayse Kalkan and Carolyn Fragale had 11 each.
Coming on the end of the game and Lakehead up by 5 , Western went on a run to tie the game, and then take the lead, 61-59 with under two minutes to play. Lakehead would go ahead 62-61 on a Carolyn Fragale three ball from the right wing with 25 seconds to play. Jenny Vaughan would score on a turnaround jumper in the lane with 18 seconds left to put the pressure on Lakehead. On the subsequent play, Lindsay Druery was fouled on a lay up with 1.9 seconds remaining, thus needing only to hit 2 throws to secure the win. Surprisingly, she clanked the first, and then missed the second as well on a lazy bounce off the rim. Luckily, Lacey McNulty was active on the glass, quickly tapping the ball back at the rim, but over it and into the hands of Druery who caught and released a lay up off the glass just before the final buzzer sounded.
Despite lodging a protest with officials about the time keeping, Western coach Brian Cheung was denied any quarter from the referees. Upon later review of the game tape (after the game), it was clear that no ‘homer’ time keeping was to blame for the miraculous finish, only a lucky bounce and the tenacity of McNulty and Druery to fight to the very end.
Jon Kreiner on the win, “It was a thrilling finish to a game that had many lead changes and where both teams worked very hard. Tonight we struggled to get to the free throw line and when we did we struggled to convert but our second effort plays were the difference in the game. I thought our team effort on the glass was awesome tonight and after a poor start to the game Lacey came in when it was 35-30 Western and changed our team’s momentum. She was really noticeable in the 4th quarter and her 16 rebounds were huge for us especially on the last play of the game where she tipped the ball off a missed FT to Druery for the game winning bucket. Sierra Guy and Ayse Kalkan played big tonight with 10 and 8 rebounds respectively (Sierra with 6 Offensive) and on a night where we didn’t shoot it that well we got many 2nd chances to score.”
Next weekend the women travel to Kitchener-Waterloo for a weekend series versus the Laurier Golden Hawks.