THUNDER BAY – SPORTS – The Lakehead University women’s basketball team’s pre-season opener was spoiled by the Winnipeg Wesmen, 65-63 on Thursday. With a young group with only one fourth year senior (Katelyn Zen) in the lineup, the Lakehead women might have seemed outmatched early by the more experienced Winnipeg team, but the ‘Wolves held fast.
Lakehead lived by the three-pointer early, hitting four in the first quarter and leading 22-21 after 10 minutes. But they would die by the three-pointer late, as they stopped falling through for the group of upstarts. Lakehead only scored 21 points in all of the second half.
August Ricketts showed some nice moves inside, starting the game with three 3-point play opportunities, although she hit just one of the free throws. She finished with a team-high 13 points, but fouled out with just over 4 minutes to play.
The Wesmen were led by Skylar Boulanger with 15 points and 9 rebounds.
With 23 seconds remaining and the ‘Wolves down 63-60, they ran an inbounds play but turned it over without getting a shot. After the Wesmen hit two free throws, Jerika Baldin hit a three pointer that banked in at the buzzer.
Coach Jon Kreiner commented, “I thought we played very well in the first half. Our transition game was great and we scored well in transition. In the second half we really struggled on offence. We turned it over too many times, took too many threes and fouled too many times. I was extremely pleased with August Ricketts and Katelyn Zen tonight. They were very effective but fouls kept them from playing more.”
