THUNDER BAY – The Lakehead Thunderwolves women’s basketball team is still in the playoff hunt, but the wins have got to start coming a little more frequently.
On paper, Friday night’s match-up was a great chance for the T-Wolves to claim win No. 4 on the season, and in the early going, things were looking good.
Paced by all-star-in-the-making Ally Burke, Lakehead burst out to a 24-18 lead over the visiting Laurentian Voyageurs, but that’s when the bottom fell out.
Laurentian went on an 11-1 run to finish the opening half, then scored 10 straight points to start the third quarter, and went on to down the Thunderwolves 61-51 at the C.J. Sanders Fieldhouse.
Try as they might, the T-Wolves just didn’t have the firepower or the shot selection needed to close the gap, climbing to within seven when Burke made the first of two free throws midway through the final frame.
Laurentian’s Rileigh Smith responded with a lay-up and then Melanie Clouthier stole the ball and fed Lauren Robertson-Martin for another two and the Voyageurs were in front again by 11.
Definitely an opportunity lost, said Burke, who finished with a game-high 23.
“We got into a bit of foul trouble and that made us have lines on that we usually don’t have. So people were playing in spots they weren’t used to, so that’s where we got a little down,” Burke said. “But at halftime we came out and I think we brought it back, just not enough to get the win tonight.”
Burke and Paula Lopez, both starters, collected three fouls before the half and found themselves riding the pine for longer than coach Hugo Boisvert would have liked.
Rookie Kelly-Ann Coulombe, a monster on the glass with 16 rebounds – giving her an OUA-best 11.5 per-game average – kept the Wolves competitive, but without their best scorer for chunks of the contest and no one else able to hit double digit points, it was too tough a hole to climb out of once they fell further behind in the third.
“We didn’t talk much after the game, we just said we’re looking ahead to tomorrow,” Burke said. “There are still a lot of other teams we can beat coming up, so we still have a chance at that playoff spot and that’s what we’re going for right now.”
The top 12 teams in the OUA make the playoffs are currently 13th, a win behind Western and Laurentian, both of whom hold the tiebreaker.
“I don’t think it was a great one for us, on both sides of the floor,” Boisvert said. “I thought we had a lot of issues containing them inside, particularly. We knew that was going to be a tough match-up for us. It was definitely tough for us on that end and offensively I don’t think we shot the ball particularly well.”
The Wolves hit just 15 of 59 shots attempted, including just six of 26 three-point attempts.
And, as Boisvert said, they had few answers for Laurentian centre Emilie Lafond, who finished with 22 points and nine boards.
It’s time to put this one in the past, and in a hurry, Boisvert said.
“It’s an ugly one for all of us, and now we’ve got to flip the switch and move on to tomorrow, quickly.”
Lakehead and Nipissing (2-8) tip off at 6 p.m. on Saturday at the Fieldhouse.
