Slow start, strong finish

It’s not often a team goes the equivalent of an entire quarter of basketball without scoring and winds up winning the game.

Rarer still is a 31-point margin of victory.

Count the Lakehead Thunderwolves women’s basketball team among the few who can say they’ve achieved it. The Wolves, outscored 6-3 Saturday night in an opening quarter more reminiscent of a college football game, took the early warning to heart and stormed back in the second half en route to a laughable 68-37 Thunderdome win over the visiting Guelph Gryphons. 

Fifth-year pivot Shannon Vellinga, who came off the bench for the second straight night, said it was simply a case of missed opportunities in the opening stanza, which saw Georgia Harvey stake the Wolves to a 3-0 lead in the first 20 seconds and then completely shut down until the second.

“I wouldn’t say it was ugly, but some of our shots weren’t dropping,” said Vellinga, who paced the Wolves (9-5) with 16 points. “I guess the important thing is you can look at our defence. We locked them down pretty steady.

“I think in the second half we figured we just had to stick together, move the ball, look for depth on our offense and take our time.”

Coach Jon Kreiner called it a classic case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

“It was a great start,” he said, a slight touch of sarcasm dripping as he spoke. “And then after that, it wasn’t pretty. One of the differences in our team tonight is we didn’t panic, we didn’t get flustered or we didn’t get frustrated.”

Whatever potion Kreiner gave his troops at halftime worked to a tee.

The Wolves started the second half on a 13-2 run, including five from fourth-year guard Tasia McKenna, who pushed the LU lead to 31-22 when she stopped, popped and dropped a three from the top of the arch, and followed with a deuce, driving to the hoop through traffic.

It didn’t get any better for the Gryphons from there.

After closing the gap to eight when Marlee Freeman sank a pair of free throws, the Lakehead women began to pull away again. Nova Scotia native Sarah Gordon crashed the glass for two and sank the free throw awarded because of the foul on the play, then Vellinga netted back-to-back baskets and McKenna banged home an easy three, capping a 27-9 run that all but put the game out of reach.

“It gives us nice momentum when something like that happens. But that’s for every team. It was a nice team game today. It’s nice when you look at the scoreboard and that’s the way it looks. It makes the game really fun,” Vellinga said.

Kreiner emptied his bench in the fourth, but still out-produced the last place Gryphons (2-12) by 12 points.

The Wolves venture into Windsor next weekend for a pair against the OUA West Division-leading Lancers.