Lady Thunderwolves Win Over Gryphons
THUNDER BAY – The Lakehead Thunderwolves women’s basketball team gave 5 graduating seniors a proper send-off from the Thunderdome Saturday night, winning their final regular season game, 87-78 over the Guelph Gryphons.
Following a closely contested first half (and Guelph leading 45-43), the ‘Wolves used a 30-point 3rd quarter to propel them to their 3rd win in a row.
Katie Ulakovic had another great night shooting the ball, connecting on 4 three’s and all 5 of her free throws to finish with 19 points and 2 assists. Jylisa Williams scored a game-high 22 points with 4 assists for Lakehead.
Essa Jacobsen was in the right place at the right time consistently on the glass, collecting 15 rebounds (13 offensive) and scoring 10 points.
Ayse Kalkan (Winnipeg, Man.), who played her final game in the Thunderdome scored 15 points with 3 steals.
It was also the final home game for Kelsey Bardsley (Manchester, Eng.), Jessica de Haan (Thunder Bay), Lindsay Inkila (Thunder Bay) and Ashley Randall (Hamilton, Ont.). All 5 student athletes were honored after the game in traditional ‘seniors night’ fashion, accepting flowers and framed jerseys.
Marlee Freeman and Kate MacTavish scored 20 points each for the Gryphons, whose season came to an end.
Coach Jon Kreiner stated, “Winning 2 games this weekend was our goal and our team responded to a great push by Guelph. When Jylisa went out with 4 fouls we responded and built a 12 point lead. Ayse Kalkan and Essa Jacobsen were unbelievable in the second half. 13 offensive boards shows just how hard Essa worked. We now need to prepare for our first round playoff game against McMaster on Wednesday.
The women will play McMaster in the first round of the playoffs Wednesday in Hamilton.
NNL Coverage team: Kristin Loretta Wynn, Kirsten Wesley, and James Murray.
