THUNDER BAY – Sometimes one bad quarter is all it takes to throw away a chance to win.
On Friday night, it was the second.
The Laurier Golden Hawks went on a 24-2 run, including scoring 17 straight points, to pull away from the Lakehead Thunderwolves en route to a 65-51 triumph at the C.J. Sanders Fieldhouse.
It was a tough 10 minutes to stomach, said first-year point-guard Lily Jones, whose seven points represented three more than she’d scored all season long in limited minutes with a T-Wolves team still struggling to find its identity.
It’s a game the Wolves thought they could win, the two teams separated by just half a game in the standings heading into Friday’s action.
“It sucks, obviously,” said Jones, a native of Kitchener, Ont.
“But hopefully we have another chance to get back at them eventually down the line.”
The T-Wolves have to get better across the board, Jones said, specifically pointing to the team’s play without the ball.
“In the locker room we talked about focusing on defence and stringing some stops along and that will translate to offence at the other end and hopefully we’ll have a better outcome next time.”
Lakehead coach Hugo Boisvert said he’s not sure what went wrong in the second quarter, after the Golden Hawks only managed to carry an 18-14 lead through one, a quarter that saw the lead change hands three separate times.
“I think defensively was really where we were unable to match their intensity. I was pretty encouraged with our offence and the shots that we were getting, even though we didn’t have a lot of points on the board at halftime,” Boisvert said.
“In terms of the shots we were creating, we were happy with that. It was just on the other side of the ball.”
Down 33-14, it was Evan Guilera with a shot in the paint that finally snapped the Golden Hawks 17-0 run, as Laurier claimed 42-20 lead at halftime.
It was more of the same in the third. Ally Burke cut the Laurier lead to 44-25 with a three-pointer early in the frame, but Brittyn Graves responded with a quick five points, upping their lead to 25, Laurier taking a 57-32 lead into the fourth.
The final quarter was the lone bright spot on the night for the T-Wolves, who outscored their opponent 19-8, paring the Laurier lead back to 14 before the final buzzer sounds
Kate White led the Golden Hawks with 22 points. Cassidy Hirtle and Graves both had 11 points. Burke led the Thunderwolves with 14, adding four assists and two steals to her resume.
Lakehead will host two-time defending national champion Carleton on Saturday night a the Fieldhouse. Game time is 8 p.m.
