THUNDER BAY – LU SPORTS – The Lakehead women’s basketball team lost a close game to the #4 Carleton Ravens tonight in Ottawa.
“Extremely disappointing considering just how well we played for the majority of the game. Great start, held a good lead going into half. Didn’t compete vs Carleton’s response in the third but we competed for 8 minutes of the fourth.” – Coach Kreiner
The Wolves started the game with a big 11-1 run and maintained their intensity for the duration of the quarter. Nikki Ylagan ended the first quarter hitting a 3, putting the ‘Wolves up 23-12.
Lakehead continued to their lead into the second. Bridget O’Reilly hit big three early on in the quarter that gave her team their largest lead of the game at 30-14. The ‘Wolves finished the half, leading 43-31.
The Ravens found their step in the third quarter, outscoring the ‘Wolves 19-7 and tying the game at the end of the quarter, 50-50.
The teams battled back and forth for the first 5 minutes of the fourth quarter. Lakehead pushed a 64-59 lead but Carleton took it back with 40 seconds left and maintained the lead until the buzzer rang.
“Overall we missed free throws, gave up offensive boards and didn’t make shots when they counted,” said Coach Jon Kreiner after the game.
The Thunderwolves were 44% from the free throw line and gave up 12 offensive rebounds.
Bridget O’Reilly had 13 points with 4 threes in the first half. The ‘Wolves had 4 other players scoring double digits including Katelyn Zen and Nikki Ylagan with 12 points each, Lily Gruber-Schulz with 11 and Gillian Lavoie with 10 points.
“Still super proud of how hard we worked and competed against a very tough team. Gillian played great defense against Lindsey, Bridget played well on both ends of the floor and Jerika Baldin played 38 minutes with a stomach flu. Rookies Nikki Ylagan & Lily Gruber-Schulz continue to impress. We now get a weekend off to regroup and get healthy for the stretch run.” – Coach Kreiner
The Thunderwolves will have next weekend off and will continue the following week on the road against Laurentian and Nipissing on February 3rd and 4th.
