THUNDER BAY -- For most of the pre-Christmas schedule the Lakehead Thunderwolves women’s basketball team was sniffing at a top-10 ranking.
But a last-minute stumble at Laurentian in their first-half finale left them on the outside looking in, despite knocking off a pair of top-10 opponents and a solid showing against No. 1 Windsor, winners of the past two national championships and five of the last six.
Fifth-year guard Jylisa Williams, in the conversation for OUA and CIS player of the year honours, said it’s a game they plan to put in the past.
“It was a good lesson for the end of the semester,” said Williams, trying to put a positive spin on the 66-61 defeat.
“We realized we can’t take any game for granted and we’re practicing right now because we’re motivated.”
The Wolves, who will take part in the Thunder Selects Holiday Classic in Halifax beginning Dec. 28, finished the first-half with a 4-3 record, a performance that deposited the team into third place in the OUA Central behind McMaster and Guelph.
Williams said the expectations are much higher in the second half, with plenty of room to improve.
“We showed glimpses of great games. We showed glimpses of our potential, where we could compete with those high-ranking teams. But at the same time we showed some of our weaknesses in finishing games, knocking down shots,” Williams said.
“I feel we were right in the middle and it definitely showed the good and the bad.”
LU coach Jon Kreiner said he’d rather not dwell on the defeat too much going forward.
All in all, he’s pretty happy with where the team sits heading into the Christmas break.
“I think Laurentian was our only bad loss,” Kreiner said. “Splitting at McMaster, I’ll take that again. And then our game against the national championship team, I would love to have that last 11 minutes back, but what we did do was prove we can have a 12-point lead with just over 11 minutes to go.”
Kreiner said when the offence, led by Williams’ CIS-leading 30-point-a-game average, doesn’t get going, it has a ripple effect on the rest of the Thunderwolves’ performance.
“When we struggle to score in the half-court, it puts a lot of pressure on our defence and when we fail to score we still need to learn to take good shots and we need to play the shot clock out, as opposed to trying to take too much too early,” Kreiner said.
“We have to get more depth to our offence.”
That means more players have to contribute. He’d love to see fifth-year, homegrown guard Katie Ulakovic, the best athlete on the team, step into that role down the stretch. Ulakovic, a threat from outside, is only averaging 4.4 points a game, but has shown in the past she’s got the ability to be a game changer.
American import Essa Jacobsen, who has struggled with injuries, is second on the team with an 11-point average, with Katelyn Andrea third at 6.4 points-per game.
Kreiner said he’s considering keeping the ball out of Williams’ hands early in the shot clock, turning to Williams in the last 10 seconds.
“Right now teams are focusing on Jylisa, so offensively we should have some open looks,” he said.
The Wolves open second-half play on Jan. 9 against Brock.
