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Wolves women overpower Warriors

The Waterloo Warriors were never anything more than a tune-up match for the Lakehead Thunderwolves. Still, with No. 5 Laurier on the horizon a night later, it wasn’t the time to develop bad habits or look beyond. Not to worry.
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Katelyn Andrea drives baseline against Waterloo on Friday night.

The Waterloo Warriors were never anything more than a tune-up match for the Lakehead Thunderwolves.

Still, with No. 5 Laurier on the horizon a night later, it wasn’t the time to develop bad habits or look beyond.

Not to worry.

With the exception of a three-minute stretch in the opening quarter, the Wolves women were a well-oiled basketball machine. Led by Jylisa Williams’ 28 point-performance, Lakehead cruised to a 92-47 win Friday night, improving to 10-3 in the process.

Katie Ulakovic, who added 14, including four three-pointers, said they wanted to keep the momentum building heading into Saturday night.
The win was their sixth straight in OUA play, their ninth in a row over CIS competition, adding in their three-game sweep at a Christmas tournament in Halifax.

“We came ready to go,” Ulakovic said.

“We struggle to come as prepared as we should against teams we know might not be quite at our level. But we didn’t play at their level, we played at our level and I think it helped us a lot.”

Locked in a standings battle with McMaster in the OUA Central and fighting to finish in the top four in the ratings percentage index to earn a first-round bye and a home game in the second round of the playoffs, Ulakovic said these games may as well be postseason contests.
“It’s a very important weekend overall,” she said. “Coach likes to put it as this is one game for the weekend, 80 minutes. This is good momentum for tomorrow night.”

Fellow Thunder Bay product Cassandra Soulias added seven points off the bench and said it would have been easy for the Thunderwolves to lose their focus on Friday, thinking too much about what they have to do to win on Saturday.

It didn’t happen.

The Wolves roared out to a 21-13 lead after one quarter, and after the Warriors closed to within six, Lakehead went on an 18-2 run to finish out the half, leading 43-21.

“I just feel like our defence was pretty good for the most part tonight and we’re going to use this momentum tomorrow night,” Soulias said.
“On the defensive end we made some key stops and we really moved the ball on offence too.”

Lakehead didn’t let up after the half, pulling away even further as coach Jon Kreiner rotated his players on and off the bench, resting Williams and Essa Jacobsen for most of the fourth.

Kreiner said with the game in hand, he wanted his crew to focus on finishing strong.

It could be an important lesson to learn down the road.

“We need to find a way to just put a team away. We haven’t been able to do that all year and we came out and did it tonight,” Kreiner said.

“I didn’t think our first shift was what we wanted out of our bench, but after that our bench did a fantastic job.”

Blair McNaughton added eight in a reserve role, while Katelyn Zen scored six, all in the fourth subbing for Williams.

Jacqui Rodrigues led the Warriors (3-12) with seven points.



Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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