THUNDER BAY – The clock is ticking down on Lily Gruber-Schulz’s university basketball career.
She’s making the most of it, even if her 1-11 Lakehead Thunderwolves are struggling to put notches in the win column.
The Grand Marais, Minn. native had double digit rebounds for a second straight night on Saturday, adding 14 points to her dozen rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to erase a 20-1 run by the visiting Toronto Varsity Blues, who erupted in the third for 27 points and went on to an 89-66 victory to earn the weekend split.
Gruber-Schulz, who retired for two years because of chronic injuries, only to return this season for her final year of eligibility.
It hasn’t gone as she’d hoped, at least from a team standpoint.
“Definitely, I think we were all pretty disappointed with the result,” she said. “It was a good learning experience to be able to play at that physical level with them.”
But at least Gruber-Schulz gets to go out on her own terms.
That includes executing a recently discovered three-point shot.
The American import hit four three-pointers on Saturday night, something she’s attempting to perfect in her senior season.
“I took two years off and then when I came back, I decided that was something I really wanted to focus on when I was preparing for this final season,” Gruber-Schulz said.
One thing she couldn’t really help with was the number of turnovers made by the Thunderwolves, 29 in total, leading to 28 Varsity Blues points. Conversely, Lakehead managed just seven points off turnovers.
That was troublesome, said interim coach Dave McCallum.
“Definitely the girls were frustrated. We knew they were going to come out and up the pressure. There were too many turnovers for us to get effective possessions. That’s something we’ve obviously identified that we need to make sure that we’re better at,” McCallum said.
“We had some good runs, but not enough to make a run out of it.”
The Thunderwolves also had no answer for Toronto’s Ellen Ougrinov, who finished with 28 points to lead all scorers, including 5-of-13 from beyond the arc.
Ougrinov, a fourth-year guard from Mississauga, said after being on the wrong end of Friday night’s 78-71 contest, Lakehead’s first win of the season, it was crucial for the Varsity Blues to escape the C.J. Sanders Fieldhouse with a split.
“I think we wanted to come out tonight and really show who we are as a team,” she said. “We wanted to focus on shutting a lot of their best players down like (Tiffany Reynolds). She’s a great player, so we just really focused on that and were able to get the win today.”
Reynolds, who went down after a knee-on-knee collision in the third, only to return after a short break, finished with 20 points, seven assists and four rebounds. Ally Burke also hit double digits for LU, scoring 10 points.
Toronto, fifth in the OUA Central, improved to 4-10.
