Thunder Bay, ON – The Lakehead men’s and women’s basketball teams will be on the road this weekend, taking on the Toronto Varsity Blues and the Ryerson Rams in their last regular season games before the Christmas break and New Year.
Women’s Basketball (6-2)
Toronto is currently 3-5, tied with Ottawa in 5th place in the OUA East. The Blues were edged out, 69-67 this past weekend by Laurier and went on to beat Waterloo 66-39 on Saturday. Toronto’s Keyira Parkes is shooing 57% this season from the three points line, one of the highest in the league.
Ryerson (6-2) sits third in the OUA East and is on a five-game winning streak. Sofia Paska is currently ranked top 5 in the OUA, averaging 19 points, 9 rebounds per game.
Coach Jon Kreiner says, “Toronto is an experienced and well-coached team that has a great balance of shooting, athleticism, rebounding and tough physical defence. Ryerson has one of the best post players in the country in Sofia Paska who is playing very well right now. They also have a very athletic team that is consistently holding teams under 60 points. We will have our work cut out for us against two very tough opponents. We need to understand how important each game is and have a better start to our games.”
The Thunderwolves split this past weekend, losing to No. 4 Carleton and going on to beat a tough Ottawa team the following night. Leashja Grant scored a total of 53 points and had 30 rebounds over the weekend.
Men’s Basketball (0-8)
“With the last two games of the semester we need to focus on our execution of the game plan for the entire 40 minutes,” says Coach Manny Furtado.
Toronto (5-3) won both their games this past weekend against Laurier and Waterloo. Blues
fifth-year guard Reilly Reid and third-year Nikola Paradina both had career-high nights against Laurier with Reid putting up 24 points and Paradina having 23 points, 12 rebounds.
Ryerson ranks tenth on the U SPORTS Top 10 this week with a record of 6-2. Ryerson’s Tanor Ngom has the highest shooting (FG) percentage in the OUA with 69%.
Weekend Schedule
Friday, December 1 vs Toronto @ Goldring Centre
6:00 pm – Women
8:00 pm – Men
Saturday, December 2 vs Ryerson @Mattamy Athletic Centre
6:00 pm – Women
8:00 pm – Men
Games will be broadcasted via OUA.tv
