Women’s basketball team completes weekend sweep, secures playoff bye

Lakehead’s women’s basketball team swept yet another weekend tonight after defeating the Laurier Golden Hawks 76-59 in Waterloo. Lakehead improves to 18-4.

“I was very happy with our first quarter,” Thunderwolves head coach Jon Kreiner said. “We executed an almost perfect gameplan.”

Lakehead came out of the gate hot, pushing out to a 17-4 lead early. Laurier scored the first bucket of the game, which the Thunderwolves countered with 14-straight points. Lakehead finished the first quarter up 29-13 and added another 14 in the second, making it 43-24 at half.

The Thunderwolves offensive output was truly a team effort, with nine different players scoring in the game. Lakehead was led by Karissa Kajorinne’s 16 points, while Leashja Grant added 15 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals. Tiffany Reynolds, Tianna Warwick-Dawkins, and Charlotte Clifford performed as a platoon of scrappy stat-stuffers, combining for 21 points, 23 rebounds, 8 assists, 5 steals, and 4 blocks. Kielly McDonough added 9 points off the bench.

The win guarantees a top-two finish and first-round bye in OUA playoffs for the women’s team.

“We got the job done and locked down the #2 spot and a bye, which is important.
Kreiner said. “I’m proud of our team and how we are performing, but we still have to work on our consistency and focus.”

The Thunderwolves finish the regular season at home next weekend, where they’ll face the Brock Badgers. No matter how the games shake out, Lakehead will face the winner of one of the first-round OUA matches at home the following weekend.

Playoff tickets will go on sale on Friday, February 15th at 5:30pm. Tickets will be available for purchase at the CJ Sanders Fieldhouse, or online here.

[photo credit: Jothan Salfarlie]

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