Tough loss for Thunderwolves women

If Jon Kreiner asks his players to come in early Saturday and work on their shooting skills, they’ll certainly know why.

On Friday they put on a clinic on how not to fire the ball at the basket, helped in their woes by a Brock Badgers defensive effort that kept the Lakehead Thunderwolves women’s squad at bay most of the night en route to an easy 72-49 win at the Thunderdome.

Lakehead shot just 18-66 from the field, a 27.7 per cent effort that included a 3-28 disaster from three-point territory.
It was actually a little bit of everything that went wrong, Kreiner said.

“We lost players out there consistently and we were out of position. They were faster than we were, had more energy,” Kreiner said.

“There were certain times when we were doing some of the things we were doing and we looked great. They didn’t score for the first 6:12 of the second quarter, but then they go and score 16 in the next three minutes. If we’re going to have any success against this team we’ve got to have better transition defence, we need better shot selection and we need better ball movement.”

Guard Katie Ulakovic, who led the Wolves with 15 points, 11 which came courtesy of a trio of second-half three-pointers said the slow start killed them.

“We didn’t come out ready to play and it just didn’t work out for us tonight,” said the former Hammarskjold High School star, now in her third year in a Lakehead uniform.

“Our shots weren’t falling, but it’s also a reflection of bad ball movement and just taking low percentage shots,” she said.
The Badgers, who stayed perfect at 10-0, were led by Nicole Rosenkranz, who hit for a game-high 20 points while grabbing nine rebounds, all on the defensive glass.

Andrea Polischuk also shined with a double-double, scoring 16 points to go with 11 boards, while Kayla Santilli added 14 points.

Brock when on a 6-2 run to end the first, but it was Lakehead who got the upper hand early in the second courtesy of rookie Jessica de Haan. The ex-Hammarsjkold pivot sank a pair of free throws and followed with a hoop underneath, followed by a Ulakovic drive that pulled the Wolves to within nine at 22-13.

But the Badgers just kept pulling away, Polischuk driving a stake into LU’s chances at the buzzer with a long three-pointer that put them up 38-21. The upped their lead an additional four points in the third quarter, and coasted home in the fourth.

With the loss Lakehead dropped back to .500 at 5-5, alone in fourth in the OUA West.