Defensive shortcomings

A fast start was just what the Lakehead Thunderwolves were looking for Saturday night.

What the women’s basketball team didn’t need was it waking the Ottawa Gee Gees out of an early slumber.

But after taking a quick 4-0 lead over their No. 10-ranked opponent, their good fortune evaporated. The Gee Gees rolled off 11 straight points, took control of the contest and put it away in a hurry, opening a 22-point lead at half and cruised to a 78-52 victory.

“I feel like we lost focus a little bit and we didn’t execute what we planned in practice,” said LU guard Kelsey Bardsley, who topped all Thunderwolves with 18 points, her father in the stands from Britain for the first time in her three-year career.

Practice makes perfect and judging from the week they had in the gym, the Wolves were raring and ready to go this weekend, against a pair of top teams in Carleton and Ottawa.

The results indicated the exact opposite, she said.

“When it came to the games, they made runs that we couldn’t stop,” she said.

“Our mental toughness needs to get way better – everyone. If you make a mistake you’ve got to get right back and work hard. You’ve got to forget about stuff like that.”

The game actually went according to script, as far as defensive planning. The goal heading in was to limit Ottawa’s Catherine Traer and Stephanie MacDonald in the offensive zone. MacDonald managed just 11 points, while Traer was held to only five.

They forgot about Katherine Lemoine, who came off the bench and slammed the Wolves for a game-high 25 points.

“That can’t happen,” said Lakehead coach Jon Kreiner, relieved the toughest part of the team’s trek through the OUA East is over.

“That being said, we’ve got four quality opponents that we feel that if we take some of the things we just did right now, improve some areas that maybe we can build on that so that at the end of the year, if we get the opportunity to play some of these teams again, I certainly would like that opportunity.

Kreiner was disappointed mostly at his defence, who just didn’t get the job done.

“We just gave up far too many lay-ups,” he said.

Lakehead trailed 38-16 at the half and were down 27 after three. They started the fourth on a 9-0 run to pull to within 20, but the Gee-Gees reeled off eight straight of their own to go up 72-44 and traded baskets down the stretch.

Lakehead hits the road next weekend to take on first-year Algoma and Laurentian.