Carleton sloughs off slow start to finish off Lakehead in Halifax

HALIFAX -- A quick start was not a sign of things to come for the Lakehead Thunderwolves women's basketball team.

The Wolves jumped out to a 6-1 lead on Tuesday afternoon against their OUA rival Carleton Ravens – a team they beat in first-half play – but faded fast.

The Ravens went on a 14-0 run, interrupted only by a Blair McNaughton second-quarter three-pointer, then rolled off another 10 in a row and crushed the Thunderwolves 50-33 on Day 2 of the Thunder Selects Holiday Classic at the Homburg Centre in Halifax.

It was the second loss in as many days in the Nova Scotia capital for Lakehead, in a tournament they entered as defending champions.

“I guess we haven’t really been much of a consistent team lately,” said guard Katelyn Zen, whose six points tied McNaughton and centre Gillian Lavoie for tops on the team.

“We’re really young, and I know we say that every time, but we’re still young and we have a hard time keeping the pressure on the whole entire game. That really gets us, especially with a team like Carleton who is so experienced.”

Heather Lindsay and Lindsay Shotbolt led the Ravens offensively, each collecting 10 points.

For the Thunderwolves, it was a similar story offensively to their opening day loss Monday to the host Saint Mary’s Huskies.

They found Carelton's No. 1-ranked defence tough to penetrate and wound up with poor shot opportunities or none at all.

“Carleton is huge, especially compared to us,” Zen said. “They really took it to us.”

Defensively they held Carleton to just 50 points, 18 fewer than their per-game average this season. But with the ball the Wolves needed a second three-pointer from McNaughton in the final minute of play just to crack the 30-point barrier, scoring less than half than they normally do each night.

The Wolves didn’t help their own cause, said coach Jon Kreiner.

“We gave up 21 offensive rebounds,” he said. “Defensively, I’ve got to give our team credit for our effort – and our effort was a lot better today. We played with pride.

“Offensively, we are struggling because we’re playing too much half-court offence, five-on-five. And when you’re playing a big team like Carleton, without a lot of help you’re not going to create many advantages out there … Basically we’re taking a lot of contested shots.”

The Wolves looked to be back on track to start the second half, despite trailing 27-13 at the break.

But after Jerika Baldin cut the Carleton lead to eight, 29-21, on a coast-to-coast break, the Ravens pulled away again.

Elizabeth LeBlanc scored all five of her points in the final two minutes and the Ravens were up 16 heading to the final frame.

After Lavoie scored to open the fourth, Katelyn Andrea missed a pair of free throws and Lavoie missed an open layup under the net. Instead of being down 10, the Ravens responded with a bucket and their lead jumped back to 16.

“When you have freebies, our team really needs to execute. We need to finish and we need to hit layups and free throws.”

The Wolves are scheduled to take on the Brock Badgers in Wednesday morning's finale, but a team source said they are seeking to switch opponents to face a team they haven’t played yet in 2015-16. The Badgers fell 64-60 to Dalhousie.