THUNDER BAY – Leashja Grant leads the OUA in points-per-game and rebounding – and she says she’s not even close to 100 per cent healthy.
That’s not good news for the rest of the OUA.
Grant on Friday dropped 26 points and equalled her season average with 12 rebounds – playing just 21 minutes – leading the Lakehead Thunderwolves women’s basketball team to a 88-46 humiliation of the visiting Laurentian Thunderbirds at the C.J. Sanders Fieldhouse.
“We prepared for it and we had a bye week last week, so we were able to work on some things and I was able to recover from some previous injuries that allowed me to push forward in this game and come out with the victory,” said Grant, who scored eight quick points in the opening quarter as the Wolves raced out to a 13-0 start and never really looked back.
That hot start bred confidence, she added, both at the individual and team levels.
“It’s really good to know that my teammates trust me when they pass the ball inside to me. They have a lot of confidence in me to know I’m going to score off of their assists,” Grant said.
And that opens things up on the outside.
On Friday it was sophomore guard Nikki Ylagan who had the hot hand from beyond the arc, burying four of her nine attempts, including back-to-back-to-backs successes in a third quarter that saw the Wolves outscore the competition 27-6.
Guard Jerika Baldin hit three three-pointers of her own, en route to a 13-point, eight-assist night that included a Larry Bird-like behind-the-back pass in the third that led to an easy bucket for teammate Bridget O’Reilly.
“I do it actually a lot, but I don’t do it in games because it needs to be the perfect opportunity and I knew it was because I saw their girl coming after me,” Baldin said.
“It wasn’t something to do that was cool, I guess if I’d passed it in front of me it probably would have gotten stolen. I just went for it.”
After jumping out in front 24-8 after the opening quarter, the Wolves stumbled a bit in the second, the Voyageurs going on an 8-2 run to cut the Lakehead lead to 12.
Coach Jon Kreiner called a timeout and the home side promptly went on a 13-3 run, opening up a 20-point lead by the time halftime rolled around.
At halftime he challenged them to keep their feet on the pedal.
“You finally did what I asked,” he was overheard telling his team after their third-quarter dominance.
“It was good for us,” Baldin said. “We learned from our Queen’s game where we got up 9-0 and slowly let them get back into it and eventually ended up losing. That was always in the back of our heads, that if we were going to go up, we were going to keep going at them. We can’t let down.”
The game also marked the return of guards Tiffany Reynolds and Rachel Webber to the Thunderwolves lineup. Both contributed in their regular-season debuts, Reynolds scoring nine points and collecting five steals. Webber scored four points and added six assists.
“It was a nice boost. It allows us to play a little more pressure defence. It gives us a little more toughness at the defensive end of the floor and rebounding,” Kreiner said.
Emily Tinnes and Mackenzie Robinson topped the Voyageurs with 10 points apiece.
Lakehead hosts Nipissing on Saturday at 6 p.m.
