Destiny is the Lakehead Thunderwolves to live or die by this season.
Regardless of what happens against Brock on the road next weekend, their 70-58 triumph over Waterloo at the Thunderdome on Saturday night ensured they'll be in the playoff hunt through the final weekend of OUA play.
Buoyed by 21 points from Ayse Kalkan and 20 from long-distance specialist Kelsey Bardsley, the Wolves (9-9) climbed back to .500 and into a three-way tie for fourth place in the OUA West with McMaster and Western.
More importantly they opened a two-game cushion between themselves and seventh-place Guelph, who they'll host in two weeks time to wrap up the 2011-12 campaign.
"Western's win (today) definitely put us in a tough position, so these two wins will definitely help us claim a playoff spot," Kalkan said.
"I think our next four games we'll have to win, but this helps us out a lot."
The pressure is starting to come into play, she added.
"At first it was a little nervewracking, but when we got a little stretch going, it was a little more comfortable.
"We are feeling the pressure, considering it's playoff time coming up soon and every game counts."
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Lakehead coach Jon Kreiner agreed, saying he'd be lying if he denied a little scoreboard watching at this stage of the season, with so much on the line.
He's comfortable with where the Wolves sit heading further down the stretch and owning the tiebreaker against Western, who LU swept at home last month.
"We have Guelph at home the last weekend, so obviously destiny is in our hands, regardless of what happens against Brock. We'd like to go into Brock and think that we can win both games, especially if we're playing like we did in the first quarter yesterday or the third quarter today," Kreiner said.
"We're looking around at everything right now and we could finish anywhere from even third technically, though seventh to fourth is where we can (likely) finish."
They got there because of their play in the third, having taken a 38-32 lead into the break.
After the two teams traded baskets to start the period, the Wolves went on an 11-0 run, keyed by back-to-back-to-back baskets by Kalkan, to open up a 51-34 advantage.
The Warriors put up five straight of their own, but then Lacey McNulty took over, scoring nine straight Thunderwolves points, part of a 12-0 run that stretched the lead to 68-41.
But as good as the third quarter was for the Pack, the fourth was almost as equally bad, save for the 5-0 run to start the period.
Waterloo authors of just one win in 18 games this season, stormed back in the final stanza, buoyed by an 11-0 run of their own that cut the lead to 16 in a hurry.
But time ran out on Warriors, who were led by Laura Bossers's 16-point effort.
Still, LU coach Jon Kreiner wasn't happy with his team's finish, warning his players they can't afford efforts like that against teams in the playoff hunt.
"In the fourth quarter they adjusted and screened the weak side of the zone and we were just running zones. And I think they hit every three that they had. But it didn't matter, they were open. And once they started hitting open shots, we got out on them and they were still hitting shots," Kreiner said. "A couple of them we might even have fouled them on.
"We just didn't get stops and we were just trying to break a press and run a half-court offence. We were trying to get some kids in there as well, and it wasn't working out real well for us."
