Jon Kreiner’s squad has to learn how to play in the second quarter.
For a second straight contest they gave the game away before half, despite playing the visiting Ottawa Gee-Gees tightly in the opening 10 minutes.
Ottawa outscored the Thunderwolves 19-9 in the second, took a 13-point lead into the half and cruised home with a 65-50 win at the Thunderdome.
“We just dug ourselves in hole, to be honest,” said forward Blair McNaughton, one of the lone bright spots for Lakehead on Friday night, scoring a game-best 18 points, including four of five attempts from beyond the arc.
“It was just our turnovers and we were rushing things and it was our defence.”
For 15 minutes, the Thunderwolves looked like they could compete with Ottawa, holding their own in a 21-21 contest.
It’s those final five minutes they’d like back.
And it’s those five minutes the 0-3 Wolves seem to disappear in almost every night so far this season. McNaughton isn’t sure why.
“That’s hard to answer,” she said. “I would say we just get down on ourselves early. We make a mistake and we get down and we’re not able to pick ourselves up and play with momentum. We just lose it,” the Kitchener, Ont. native said.
Lakehead coach Jon Kreiner said the issues can partially be blamed on youth and inexperience.
“We’re having a lot of issues with our free-throw shooting too,” Kreiner said. “If we were able to eliminate that run that they had and it’s a five-point game. We had enough free throws that we missed to make up that difference.
“We’re searching and we’re stretching for the answers and looking for things that were OK. We want to be positive for tomorrow. But we really struggled at moments of the game where we really put our heads in the sand.”
The key is learning to relax and play fun basketball, he added.
Falling behind leads to mistakes, be it an inopportune pass or poor shot choice. The Wolves made 29 turnovers against the Gee-Gees and failed to find the mesh in the second half, hitting just eight of 31 from the field.
The game also marked a homecoming of sorts for Ottawa's Aliisa Heiskanen, a graduate of the Hammarskjold Vikings. Playing in her first OUA contest after a lengthy recovery from a knee injury, Heiskenen hit one of two free throws in two minutes of action.
"I just started practicing again last week," said Heiskanen, admitting it felt a little weird to be wearing Ottawa colours in her hometown gym.
"It's definitely been a long process, but hopefully I'll recover from it soon. It's good to be able to play again, for sure and to step up my game, I guess."
Bridget O’Reilly, who had 11 points, was the only other Thunderwolves player to hit double digits. Cartherine Traer led Ottawa with 15.
The loss could prove costly to Lakehead, who lost guard Cassandra Soulias to a left ankle injury in the first quarter. She said afterward it doesn’t look good for her to be in the lineup on Saturday when the Carleton Ravens invade the Thunderdome.
Game time is 6 p.m.
