Thunder Bay – SPORTS – Lakehead’s women’s basketball team beat the Western Mustangs again on Saturday night, completing the weekend sweep and improving to 14-4. With the 65-52 win, Lakehead remains second in the OUA West.
“Tonight was a much different game,” Thunderwolves head coach Jon Kreiner said. Lakehead’s 13-point win comes after last night’s 37-point victory. “Credit to Western and coach Cheng for his adjustments,” Kreiner said, “we really struggled to get any flow on offense.”
Regardless, the Thunderwolves came out of the gate hot and refused to let Western get into a rhythm after beating the Mustangs 97-60 last night. At the end of Saturday night’s first quarter, Lakehead held a 21-10 lead and was up 33-25 at the half. The Thunderwolves won the second half 32-27.
Lakehead forced the Mustangs into 25 turnovers as a team, with the Thunderwolves picking up 19 steals. Lakehead also won the rebounding battle 35-27. Lakehead, however, committed 19 turnovers as a team and shot only 29.4% from the floor in the second quarter, and 35.3% in the fourth.
“The ball was not moving,” Kreiner said. “We weren’t getting Leashja the ball in good spots, and we made poor decisions.”
Lakehead forward Leashja Grant finished with 14 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, and 4 steals—formidable numbers but below her averages in two categories. The Thunderwolves were led by guard Nikki Ylagan’s 21 points on 7-16 shooting, including 5-10 from outside. Tiffany Reynolds had a typical night of versatile play, scoring 16 points, grabbing 7 rebounds and 4 steals, and dishing out 2 assists. Second-year forward Charlotte Clifford grabbed 8 rebounds and provided 22 minutes of gritty, tough-nosed play off the bench.
On top of the win, the women’s basketball team completed another successful Think Pink! Shoot For the Cure fundraiser event on Saturday night, marking over a decade of participation in the annual game.
“It was a terrific night as we broke our record, raising over $6200 for the Shoot For the Cure even, on top of getting a much-needed win on this special night,” Kreiner said.
Lakehead travels to Waterloo next weekend for a doubleheader against the Warriors in their home gym.
