Lakehead Wins Over Mustangs
THUNDER BAY – Sports – The Lakehead Thunderwolves women’s basketball team continued to impress for the third straight game, winning 66-48 over the Western Mustangs on Friday evening. Jylisa Williams was once again the catalyst, scoring 25 points and igniting her teammates against a divisional rival, who to this point had lost only 2 games this season. A featured matchup on this occasion was Ayse Kalkan versus Jenny Vaughan, who up to this point had been scoring 24 points a game. Kalkan managed to limit the perennial all-star to 16 points on 14 shots.
Both teams dug their heels in during the first quarter, giving up very little, with Western leading 10-9 after 10 minutes.
Williams would get things going for the ‘Wolves in the second quarter, while the Mustangs would struggle to get going offensively, with Lakehead leading 28-19 at the break.
The Mustangs’ shooting woes continued in the third, and Lakehead exploded for 26 points, while keeping Western from getting into any rhythm.
Western would hit their first three-pointers of the game in the 4th quarter, as Lakehead’s defense finally started to give, if only a little. As the final minutes rolled off the clock, it was clear both coaches had Saturday night’s game in mind.
Williams’ final line included 25 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists, while Kalkan scored 14 with 9 rebounds. Essa Jacobsen grabbed 11 rebounds and Kelsey Bardsley splashed home 3 long bombs to finish with 10 points and 2 assists.
For the Mustangs, Vaughan led with 16 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists, while Caroline Wolynski had 10 points.
Coach Jon Kreiner commented, “I am really happy with how our team executed the game plan defensively tonight. Western is one of the top scoring teams in the CIS with five 5th year players who can all score. To hold them to 28 points over 3 quarters and 48 for the game is a true reflection of the hard work and preparation over the week. Essa Jacobsen set the tone early for us with her defence and rebounding. We know Western has had very good starts to games so we needed to set a tone in the first 5 minutes and after a slow start (10-6) we turned it into a 18-14 lead through our defence. Jylisa Williams was great tonight and she really played well at both ends of the floor but Ayse Kalkan sparked us in the 3rd quarter offensively (after guarding All-Canadian Jenny Vaughn all game) and Jerika Baldin came off the bench to move the ball (4 assists-0 turn overs). Tomorrow’s game will be very tough and Western has the ability to reverse the score against us so we will need to be at our best and finish the full 80 minutes.”
The two teams will rematch Saturday evening at 6:00PM EST.
Webcast available via SSN Canada
Audio broadcast available via LU Radio 102.7FM
