THUNDER BAY – The Lakehead Thunderwolves gave the McMaster Marauders all they could handle on Saturday night.
Unfortunately it wasn’t quite enough.
Guard Nikki Ylagan, who was 0-for-12 from the field, capped a disappointing shooting night in the dying seconds of the second game of a back-to-back battle with the visiting Marauders, failing to bury a potential game-winning three-pointer in the waning seconds of the C.J. Sanders Fieldhouse contest and the Wolves had to settle for close, but no cigar.
The Marauders, last year’s national champions, held on for a 67-65 win, their second straight triumph to open the 2019-20 campaign.
Guard Kielly McDonough, who helped pace the Thunderwolves to a 35-34 halftime lead with four three pointers, only to be held off the score sheet in the second half, said she made a point of finding her range in Game 2.
“Coming of yesterday, I didn’t shoot the ball too well. I just kind of forgot about it, didn’t let it affect my game at all and just did what I do, which is shoot,” the homegrown sharpshooter said.
“In the second half, they kind of guarded me more, so I wasn’t able to get the open looks that I wanted.”
Still, having to focus more attention on McDonough did open up other opportunities for Lakehead, who leaned on sophomore guard Sofia Lluch and third-year guard Tiffany Reynolds for offensive opportunities in a tightly contested second half.
Lluch had back-to-back buckets late in the fourth, helping turn an eight-point contest into a four-point game, then went coast-to coast for her third straight hoop off a McMaster turnover to pull the Wolves within two.
Not getting the win, but making it close, after losing by 25 in Friday’s opener, wasn’t ideal, but at least they made it a battle, Lluch said.
“After last night’s game, we realized that we cannot allow the same mistakes we were doing in the preseason and I’m very happy because all my coaches, all my teammates made me feel good,’ said Lluch, who came off the bench this weekend.
Lluch finished with 15 points and eight rebounds, her point total second to Reynolds’ 17. Reynolds added 10 boards for the double-double, but also picked up eight of the Thunderwolves 12 turnovers on the night.
“Everyone was feeling better than we did last night. We got the vibe we needed, but we were just unlucky and we’ve just got to finish hard,” she said.
The Wolves jumped out to a 17-10 lead in the first, after spotting the Marauders a 7-0 lead to start the contest. Down 9-4, they scored 10 straight points to take a 14-9 lead and held a one-point lead through two quarters.
McMaster battled back in the third, and took the lead for good with just under two minutes to play in the quarter, Brielle Loebach nailing a pair of free throws to break a 46-46 tie. They led by three after 30 minutes.
Jenna Button hit a pair of free throws with less than three minutes to go in regulation to give McMaster a game-high nine-point advantage. It proved to be the difference, as Lakehead scored the final seven points of the contest to give themselves a chance to win it late.
The Wolves head to Ryerson next weekend, another tough task for coach Jon Kreiner’s troops.
“These losses really do hurt us, because they’re divisional games,” Kreiner said. “I told the girls we’re going to Ryerson, potentially the best team in our division, so we have to find a way to win a game on Friday.”
