THUNDER BAY – Sometimes a team just needs a spark.
Friday night, it was Tiana Warwick-Dawkins who helped light a fire under a sluggish Lakehead Thunderwolves women’s basketball squad. The team hit just 12 of 45 shots in the first half, but roared to life in the third and knocked off the visiting Queen’s Gaels 76-64 at the C.J. Sanders Fieldhouse.
The second-year guard hit three quick baskets, part of a 14-2 third-quarter run, as the Thunderwolves pulled away and built in just enough of a gap to sustain a 9-0, three-point-fuelled barrage to start the fourth.
Dawkins finished with eight points and seven steals, a catalyst for most of the 19 minutes she found herself on the court.
“Honestly, it’s a team effort,” she said, quick to deflect any praise directed her way. “Once we start to get rolling, it feels like everyone is putting the energy in. I’m just the spark. That’s my role on the team, to start it, to try to get people going, which is what I did. To see what can happen, which is this, is amazing.”
Thunderwolves coach Jon Kreiner said that’s exactly what he’s hoping for from Warwick-Dawkins, who arrived at Lakehead last season from Whitby, Ont.
“She was a super-hero out there, really, moving well on offence and playing great defence. She had seven steals in the game and I haven’t seen that for a long time.”
More importantly, he said, the team bought into the playbook, kicking the ball out to the perimeter, ball movement and finding the open shot.
“We ended up with 20 assists, 14 of them came in the second half, when we scored on seven of 11 ball reversals.”
It helped that reigning OUA most valuable player Leashja Grant finally started finding the net on a regular basis. Grant closed the first half with 14 points, but did so on 17 shots. She was more efficient after the break, hitting seven of 12 shots to complete a second straight 30-point night.
The second-year star admitted it wasn’t her best opening 20 minutes.
“Yeah, it was pretty slow. I wasn’t expecting it. I had to pick my head up because I knew my team needed me.”
The 24-year-old centre said the Gaels might have taken her for granted. When they let their guard down, she pounced.
“I felt like I was making my mistakes and I’m pretty much guarding myself, so I’m making mistakes by myself. So I had to (fix that),” she said.
The back-and-forth contest featured eight lead changes in the opening 20 minutes, but just one in the second half, the Wolves pulling ahead for good 44-42 on a Warwick-Dawkins bucket. Sofia Lluch, who kept her team in the mix in the first, coming off the bench to score a quick five points, followed with a three-pointer to cap a 10-0 run and Nikki Ylagan extended the LU lead to 10 just before the third-quarter came to a close.
Marianne Alarie, Emma Ritcey and Maddie Morris hit back-to-back-to-back treys in the first 2:15 of the fourth to close the gap to one, Morris later tying the game 60-60 with another three.
But Lily Gruber-Schulz started a 12-0 streak and Grant collected eight points down the stretch to put the game away for the 11th-ranked T-Wolves (6-1). Alarie led Queen’s with 19 points, but was hampered with four fouls for chunks of the fourth.
The Gaels dropped to 6-2 with the loss. Lakehead hosts the York Lions (5-2) on Saturday night.
