It’s all about pride now.
Jon Kreiner’s crew showed plenty of it on Saturday, riding Bridget O’Reilly’s 20-point performance and once again getting clutch basketball in the latter stages of a game from third-year guard Cassandra Soulias.
With the University of Toronto Varsity Blues closing in late in the fourth and her team’s shooting gone cold, Soulias nailed back-to-back three-point attempts in the final four minutes to stretch a three-point lead to nine and the game away, the Lakehead Thunderwolves pulling out a 74-69 senior’s night win to round out their home schedule.
Eliminated from the playoff hunt the night before by Ryerson, the Thunderwolves (6-11) nonetheless gave it their all in their final home game of the season, a night that saw injured centre Essa Jacobsen and team manager Emily Lerette honoured as part of senior night celebrations.
The duo, forced to the sidelines, were definitely an inspiration in the win, a game that could have gone either way, it seemed, for most of the contest.
“It was really important, especially since it was senior night, playing for Essa and Emily … and important for us to show them how well we can play.”
Admittedly, it wasn’t O’Reilly’s best night shooting.
A long-distance specialist, she hit just five of 17 three-pointers she fired up.
But it was enough.
“I definitely was struggling, especially in the first, to get them to drop, and a lot in the second. But I’m a shooter and I can’t stop shooting so I just kept taking them,” she said.
Lakehead trailed for much of the early going, finally re-taking the lead on a Soulias basket with less than two minutes to go in the second quarter.
Maggie Murphy buried a three-pointer late in the period, as the Thunderwolves scored the final seven points of the half to go up 31-27 at the break.
They stormed out to start the third, adding five more points to their run and led by as much as 12 after O’Reilly hit from beyond the arc.
But the Varsity Blues kept hanging around.
Alanna Garner closed the gap to six, but O’Reilly responded with a three. Garner, who finished with 18, later stole the ball deep in LU territory to cut the lead to five, 62-57. O’Reilly then hit another three, taking advantage of what appeared to be a shot-clock violation by the Thunderwolves that went undetected by the officiating crew.
At that point, the Wolves led by eight, but the Varsity Blues weren’t done yet.
Rahshida Atkinson, who led Toronto with 19 points, found her range from three-point territory with three minutes to go and Lakehead clung to a 65-62 advantage.
That’s when Soulias took over, putting it out of reach.
“That’s back-to-back games where Cassandra really sparked our team out there. She was perfect from the field today and she really made some key shots when we were struggling and Toronto went to a zone,” said Lakehead coach Jon Kreiner.
For Jacobsen, who could only sit and watch as she’s done all season long, it was an emotional night.
“It’s been awesome,” she said, tears starting to flow. “The Lakehead family has been just so good, it’s just a strong community and people love you.”
Lakehead closes OUA play next weekend on the road against Windsor and Western.
