Thunderwolves give No. 4 Rams a battle, but can't complete comeback

If you’d told Jon Kreiner his team would have two separate shots to take a late fourth-quarter lead against the No. 4 Ryerson Rams, he would he’d have welcomed the opportunity with open arms.

Buoyed by a 10-0 run early in the final period on Friday night, the Lakehead Thunderwolves did just that, closing to within a single point of the visiting Rams, but faded in the final three minutes to fall 70-58.

“One-hundred per cent,” said Kreiner after the defeat, which officially eliminated his team from OUA playoff contention, their record dropping to 5-11 on the season.

“I’m proud of the way our girls battled back. There were a couple of times when they went on runs on us and we found a way to stop those runs and battle back. But in the end ultimately the No. 4 team in the country showed why they’re No. 4 and made us pay for our mistakes down the stretch.”

Blair McNaughton had the first – and best - chance to put the Wolves in front of the heavily favoured Rams, but her three-pointer didn’t drop, gravity not working its magic on a shot that appeared good from the second it left the LU wing’s hands.

McNaughton hit a second three-pointer to pull LU within a point, 54-53, and after a Mariah Nunes turnover the Wolves marched the ball down the court, looking for the improbable lead. But a Cassandra Soulias turnover handed the ball back to Ryerson.

Moments later Bridget O’Reilly made it a one-possession game once again, hitting three of her team-leading 14 points to make it 58-56 with 2:55 to play.

But the Rams had too much firepower – and made their shots when they matter. They’d go on a 12-2 run to finish out the contest.

Lakehead guard Cassandra Soulias, who finished with 10 points, half of which came on back-to-back buckets in the fourth that pulled the Wolves to within a bucket, was not happy with the way the game played out.

The team shouldn’t have let it slip away.

“I think our big problem came in the last three minutes or so when they scored a bunch of points and we started playing scared again. That didn’t help us at all,” said Soulias. “It’s not a good feeling to have, because we were so close.

“But we just have to use this to find something positive against Toronto tomorrow, even though we weren’t able to close out Ryerson tonight.”

Despite making seven turnovers, Kreiner had high praise for his third-year guard.

“She was the instigator. She was the player that made things happen. But then you saw her revert back a bit to not having that confidence and not being a confident player. We need Cass to be aggressive and confident and when she wasn’t that’s when the other team smelled blood. And they pounced on that,” Kreiner said.

It was all Rams in the opening 20 minutes. They outscored Lakehead 19-11 in the first quarter, led 35-26 at the half and extended their lead another five points when the buzzer sounded on the third.

Silvana Jez led the Rams offensively, scoring a game-high 17 points. Keneca Pingue-Giles had 16, while Sofia Paska had 14 points and 11 boards.

O’Reilly finished with a double-double, adding 10 rebounds. Katelyn Andrea had 10 for LU, all in the first half.