THUNDER BAY – That first win feels closer than ever, but the Lakehead Thunderwolves women’s basketball team will have to wait at least one more night before it finally arrives.
The T-Wolves battled back in the fourth quarter on Friday night, giving themselves a chance to put up the potential game-winning shot in the dying seconds of their home-court contest against the McMaster Marauders, but instead came up short and on the wrong side of a 68-67 decision.
Guard Alexia Giroux, who came off the bench to score 20 points, including four from distance, said it was a tough was to finish for the 0-7 Thunderwolves, but it was also a game that helped boost the team’s confidence as the first half of the OUA season winds down.
“I feel like we worked really hard and we passed well, attacked and kept their best player, who is the best scorer in the league, to very low points,” said Giroux, who nailed back-to-back three-pointers down the stretch to cut a seven-point McMaster lead to one.
“It felt worse losing by one point than by many points, but we have tomorrow and we’ll be fine.”
After giving up the first two baskets, the Thunderwolves held strong with the Marauders in the opening quarter, the lead changing hands seven times in the first, with Giroux hitting a pair of free throws with five seconds to go to give Lakehead a 17-16 lead after 10 minutes.
The lead changed hands five more times in the early going of the second, but the Marauders began to pull away after Giroux’s second three of the game made it 25-23 Thunderwolves at the time.
Cassandra Joli-Coeur, McMaster’s smooth-shooting, 6-foot-3 post, keyed an 11-0 run, scoring six of her 18 points to turn a two-point deficit into a nine-point lead.
Ally Burke finally ended the run, threading the middle of the paint, and Lakehead managed to pull to within five before the half, including a pair of free throws made by Spanish import Eva Guilera, the sophomore pivot making her first appearance of 2022-23.
Reynolds, who hit two three-pointers in the third, pulled the T-Wolves to within three points with her second, but the Marauders still led by five after the quarter came to a close.
LU and McMaster will tangle again on Saturday night at the Fieldhouse.
Once again, an extended McMaster run stretched the lead back to double digits, Joli-Coeur’s two-pointer making it 60-49 two minutes into the final frame.
Then rookie Sarah Azzolini gave the Pack some hope, scoring eight straight points off the bench, including back-to-back from beyond the arc, and LU trailed 60-57. August Ricketts made it a one-point affair, the Marauders forced to pull back a bit on D with Joli-Coeur and Sarah Gates, the OUA’s leading scorer, both picking up their fourth personal fouls.
Gates, who led all scorers with 23, restored McMaster’s three-point lead, then pushed it to seven before Giroux went to work and closed it to a single point.
LU had the ball and a chance to go ahead, but turned the ball over and then, with just two team fouls in the fourth, took too long to burn through their two fouls to give and the clock ran out.
Interim coach Dave McCallum said the team was disappointed with the result, but it shows just how far the team has come in the past few weeks.
It’s the little things that need improvement, he said. Then the wins will come.
“Absolutely, and that’s what we’ve been working on. We were much better tonight than we were last weekend. We reduced the number of turnovers and we had more good shots. We need to grow a little maturity and just keep battling,” McCallum said.
