Game Summary

(6-3 non-conference)

The Lakehead Women’s Basketball team fought hard for their first win of the weekend 69-60 against home team University of Alberta at the HoopFest Tournament.

“Super proud of our team tonight, complete team effort. We struggled early but played very tough team basketball,” commented Coach Kreiner.

The Thunderwolves proved to be a tough match up from the get-go sticking with the Pandas, finishing the first quarter only down by 3 at 15-12.

Two minutes into the second quarter, Lakehead found them to be down 7 and were playing catch up for the majority of the quarter. The ‘Wolves battled back and finished the half tied at 31-31.

Lakehead came back into the game with the momentum and outscored the Pandas in the third quarter 16-11 putting the ‘Wolves up 47-42.

In the fourth quarter, the ‘Wolves took off running with Cassandra Soulias hitting a big 3 in the first minute. The women played strong team basketball to keep the Pandas chasing behind for the rest of the quarter. With less than 3 minutes left in the game, Lakehead was up 14 points. The Pandas fought back but ran out of time and Lakehead took the win 69-60. The ‘Wolves were able to force 17 turnovers by the Pandas in the second half.

“No one scored double digits but all 11 that played scored. We executed our game plan, created 25 turnovers and kept Alberta’s posts from being a factor.” – Coach Kreiner

First-year Lauren Earl was the leading scorer for the Pandas with 13 points and was 3-5 from the three-point line.

Bridget O’Reilly was player of the game with 9 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals. Daron Mainville and Rachel Webber also had 9 points respectively. Jerika Baldin had a great game with 8 assists and 2 steals.

As a team, the ‘Wolves had 16 assists and took better care of the ball with only 15 turnovers, compared to Alberta’s 25. They also attacked the boards with 35 total rebounds, 10 being offensive. The T-Wolves shot 42% from beyond the 3-point line and were 26-65 from the field.

The women play the University of Regina tomorrow at 1:00pm MDT.