THUNDER BAY — Rebuilding years usually come with plenty of ups and downs.
The Lakehead Thunderwolves women’s basketball team showed signs of competitiveness last weekend on the road against the Toronto Metropolitan Bold, but came up short on both nights and will be looking for their first win of the season in their home opener on Friday night when the York Lions arrive in town.
It’s not about results, at least not yet, said first-year coach Hugo Boisvert, stressing he’s looking for team play and a willingness to improve while his relatively young team finds its footing in a tough OUA women’s division that relegated the T-Wolves to a 3-19 finish in 2022-23.
“There were some ups and downs this weekend, but definitely showed in stretches that we can play at a high level,” said Boisvert.
“TMU is a good team, a very well-coached team, and challenged us defensively in ways that I don’t think we’re quite at that level yet. But we’re taking strides toward that. We’ve had some good individuals coming out there this weekend and showing that they can contribute.
Front and centre on that list is third-year guard Ally Burke, who scored 18 points on Friday night and followed up with 16 more on Saturday.
She also stood out during the pre-season, earning her team’s player-of-the-month honours for October.
Boisvert said Burke, who hails from Timmins, has been a standout since training camp opened.
“She’s vital to us. She knows how important she is and how much of a load she’ll have to carry offensively especially, for us. She’s been able to do it so far consistently, and that’s not an easy thing to do when other teams are very aware that you are the option offensively and she’s doing it regardless,” Boisvert said.
Guard Paula Lopez, who arrived at the Thunderdome with plenty of promise, only to be forced to the sidelines by injury, is getting her first real chance to make an impact and last weekend showed she could also be a force.
Lopez, one of two Spanish players on the Thunderwolves, had nine points on Friday and has fit seamlessly into the starting lineup.
“Paula is doing great things for this team and she’s also an emotional leader and a vocal leader for us in this locker room,” Boisvert said.
Rookie Kelly-Ann Coulombe also impressed in Saturday’s contest, scoring 10 points in just her second OUA appearance.
Boisvert said he’d like the team to clean things up defensively against the Lions, who finished 9-13 last season, communicate better without the ball and make better decisions when trying to stop the other team.
“And we’ve got to make sure that we take care of the ball much better than we did last weekend. That’s one of the things that hurt us the most, the pressure they put on us, and we weren’t able to respond to that in the best way that we could,” he said.
Lakehead (0-2) and York (0-2) tip off Friday and Saturday night at 6 p.m.
