No. 1 Lancers outslug Thunderwolves

On the bright side, the Lakehead Thunderwolves scored the second-most points of any team this season against the Windsor Lancers.

On the downside, the Wolves also allowed the No. 1 team in the nation its highest offensive total of the season in losing 97-62 Friday night at the Thunderdome.

All in all not a bad effort against a team that has dominated the Canadian university women’s basketball landscape for the past three seasons, winning two national titles, and, with their latest victory tallied into the total, 34 straight OUA regular season contests.

“We didn’t really look at the scoreboard. We just kept pushing the ball like it was a close game,” said Windsor’s Miah-Marie Langlois, a late cut for the 2012 Canadian Olympic basketball team who netted a game-high 19 points, adding five rebounds and 10 assists in the 35-point thrashing.

For the Lancers, it’s all about what lies ahead, she said.

“Obviously we have a goal, which is nationals, but every game is important because we want to come in first in the OUA, to get that home-court advantage.”

They set the tone early, streaking out to a 34-15 lead after the opening quarter, as coach Chantal Vallee kept the pressure on an outmatched Thunderwolves squad.

“We just came out strong. We knew Lakehead was going to try to compete with us, so we wanted to set that bar really high at that point. We were making our buckets, so it’s really hard to guard.”

Not all was rosy for the Lancers, at least according to Vallee.

She wasn’t happy with the way her team finished, despite a heavy dose of her second string eating up much of the second-half playing time.

The Lancers, who out-rebounded Lakehead 46-21 and got 22 points off 11 uncontested layups, only managed to out-score their opponent 37-35 in final 20 minutes.

“We wanted to start strong tonight and we did tonight,” said Vallee, “but we’re not particularly pleased with the way that we ended the game. We have some personal team standards and some of those goals tonight were not achieved on our part, so we will focus on that for tomorrow and come back stronger in those areas.

“We’re the No. 1 defence in Canada at 51 points a game and I think certainly we were going in that direction, but in the end it didn’t work out … However, they made five threes and they made some really good layups and completed some good shots, so we have to look at our defensive and try to do a little better.”

Ayse Kalkan penetrated the Windsor defence best, putting up 17 points and adding seven rebounds. But other than a 6-0 run early in the fourth and a 9-0 run late in the quarter, the Wolves simply couldn’t string enough offense together to mount a credible challenge.

“When you’re making it easy against a team like this, then it’s virtually impossible to beat this team. I thought in the second half we took away the transition. We had fewer turnovers in the second half and more assists,” said LU coach Jon Kreiner, whose team slipped to 7-11, maintaining a slim one-game lead over Guelph for the sixth and final playoff berth in the OUA West.

“Overall I thought they dictated to us and made us do what they wanted us to do.”

The two teams will do it again on seniors' night on Saturday. Tip-off is 6 p.m.