Women’s basketball wins another nail-biter, improves to 10-1

Lakehead’s women’s basketball team continued its winning ways on Friday night, taking down the Guelph Gryphons by a score of 67-66. Lakehead improves to 10-1 with the win.

“We put ourselves in a great position to finish out the game with a great defensive third quarter,” Thunderwolves head coach Jon Kreiner said.

Lakehead carried a 56-46 lead into the final frame.

“We held on to a tough-fought one-point game with a strong defensive stand on the last possession after a bad turnover,” Kreiner said. “We got up 12 early in the fourth quarter, but Guelph ran a 1-3-1 half-court zone press that caused us to turn the ball over and make mental mistakes.” The Gryphons outscored Lakehead 20-11 in the final period. Guelph’s Ivana Vujadinovic managed to get a desperation shot up at the buzzer, but came up empty.

The Thunderwolves finished with four players contributing double-digit points, including Leashja Grant’s 15 points, 13 rebounds, 5 steals, and 1 block. Karissa Kajorinne finished with 11 points on uncharacteristically poor shooting, going 5-14 from the floor, but she rounded out the box score with 3 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals. Nikki Ylagan added 12 points of her own on the night, but also managed to block a shot during her 29 minutes on the floor.

Guelph was led by Burke Bechard’s 20 points and 11 rebounds.

“We will need to learn how to handle Guelph’s half-court pressure if we are going to get the win again tomorrow,” Kreiner said.

Thunderwolves basketball returns to action tomorrow night with a second set of away games at the University of Guelph, on January 5th. They will return to the Thunderdome for their first home games of 2019 to face the Windsor Lancers on January 11th and 12th.

All basketball games are available via webcast courtesy of OUA.tv