THUNDER BAY – A disaster of an opening quarter was enough to do the Lakehead Thunderwolves women’s basketball team in.
The T-Wolves surrendered 30 points to the visiting Toronto Metropolitan Bold in the first 10 minutes of play on Friday night at the C.J. Sanders Fieldhouse, and were trounced 83-57 and fell to 1-16 on the season.
It took too long for the team to shake off the cobwebs, and by the time they found their shooting touch, it was too late.
“We came out with a game plan and I don’t know what really happened. We just weren’t executing properly. A lot of it came down to our defence. We just have not been together on defence or communicating as well as we should have and I think that’s where we need to get better, especially, because we can be a good defensive team,” said guard Hana Whalen, whose 11 points were second to Tiffany Reynolds’ 14 in the Thunderwolves box score.
“It has to start from there.”
Acting coach David McCallum, holding down the fort for newly hired coach Hugo Boisvert, said the team clearly wasn’t ready to go.
After Allie Burke gave LU an early 3-2 lead, the Bold went on a 16-4 run, before Emily Pokrant found the net, the visitors leading 20-9, a lead they’d stretch to 30-13 after one.
“We weren’t ready to go defensively the way we needed to be against them. TMU’s a very good team and we didn’t execute the plan we had in place. I thought we got outworked in that first quarter. Our team battled back and I’m proud of the effort since then, but we’ve got to find ways to come out and play hard from the tip and do the things that we can do,” McCallum said.
The T-Wolves played the Bold even in the second quarter, but the lead continued to grow in the second half, thanks in large part to TMU forward Rachel Farwell, who had 10 of her 18 points in the third quarter as the Bold took a 68-47 lead into the fourth.
Whalen gave Lakehead a glimmer of hope in the fourth, burying back-to-back three-pointers as the Thunderwolves climbed to within 18, but the Bold went on a 7-0 run to put a stamp on this one.
“That felt good,” Whalen said. “I’m trying to keep working on my shot and as long as I’m confident and keep shooting, hopefully it keeps going well.”
TMU’s Jayme Foreman led all scorers with 20 points, with Tya Misir (13) and Kaillie Hull (12) also hitting double digits. Lakehead was outrebounded 34-22.
The T-Wolves and Bold tip off again on Saturday night, the game scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.
