WBB: Thunderwolves fall in pre-season opener to Wesmen

If the pre-season is all about shaking off the rust, the Lakehead Thunderwolves have a whole lotta shaking left to do.

The post-Jylisa Williams era began on a losing note on Wednesday night, the shooting-challenged Wolves downed 63-60 by the visiting Winnipeg Wesmen, who dominated the offensive glass in the decisive fourth quarter en route to the victory.

Guard Katelyn Zen, one of three Wolves to hit double digits, had 11 points and said shot selection was a key factor in the loss.

“We live and die by the three sometimes and when we take an early shot in transition then we don’t have any rebounders to rebound. It just fuels our transition. We don’t need to slow it down, we need to take the right shots, move the ball first and then take those threes,” said Zen, a North Bay, Ont. native in her fourth season with the Thunderwolves.

It wasn’t that Lakehead didn’t take enough shots. They fired up 69, including 26 three-pointers, on the night. The trouble was how few they hit, especially in the second half.

After hitting 14 of 35 attempts in the opening 20 minutes, they were good on just seven of 34 in the second, one of 12 from beyond the arc.

Coach Jon Kreiner said he’ll be looking for improvement in Friday’s rematch at the Thunderdome.

“We had problem shooting, we shot more shots than they did,” Kreiner said. “We shot too many threes first of all. We were 1-for-12, we took 26. I think we’re going to be a team that’s going to be looking at taking the three out of good ball movement,” he said.

“This is a game I felt we should have won, in my mind. But it’s also a game we could have lost by 20 points. They missed a lot of easy bunnies too.”

The game marked the debut of a pair of highly touted recruits, American Amanda Miller and Ancaster, Ont.’s Rachel Webber.

Miller finished with five points, and while Webber didn’t find the bottom of the net, her hustle showed the type of player the Wolves can expect to see over the next five seasons. She grabbed seven rebounds, chipped in four assists and had three steals.

August Rickets, before fouling out in the fourth, had a team-high 13 and was a presence inside, with starting centre Essa Jacobsen sidelined until at least Christmas, if not beyond, with back trouble.

“August showed us that she’s a player and she’s got four years of play here at the Thunderdome and she played really well tonight.”

There were four lead changes in the fourth, mirroring most of the rest of the contest. Lakehead led 42-41 after a high-scoring opening half.

Blair McNaughton was the other Wolves player in double digits, with 12, including a pair of three-pointers.

Skylar Boulanger led the Wesmen with 15 and LU held Winnipeg’s top player, Megan Noonan to just nine. Noonan averaged 17.2 points a night a year ago, 11th best in Canada.

Tip off for Friday’s rematch is 6 p.m.