OTTAWA –The Lakehead Thunderwolves love to give ranked teams fits.
On Saturday they almost pulled off the upset of a lifetime, sticking with the fourth-ranked Carleton Ravens for most of the night, only to fall three points short and go down to a 68-65 defeat.
The Wolves led by as many as five points with 3:12 to go, when Jerika Baldin hit a jumper. But LU couldn’t hang on down the stretch.
Heather Lindsay high a jump shot with 1:34 to go to pull the Ravens within a point, and afer Lakehead’s Rachel Webber missed a jumper of her own, Elizabeth LeBlanc fired home the winning bucket with 39 seconds to play.
Gillian Lavoie continued her strong play of late and led the Thunderwolves with 13 points, one of five LU players to hit double digits, a list that also included Katelyn Zen, Nikki Ylagan, Lily Grubrer-Schulz and Bridget O’Reilly.
The Wolves (4-9) jumped out in front 23-12 after one quarter and led by 12 at the half. Leblanc led the former No. 1 Ravens, who top the OUA North with an 11-1 record, with 22 points.
Lakehead is off next weekend and next plays on Feb. 3 at Laurentian as they continue a six-game road trip.
They wrap up at home on Feb. 17 against Waterloo and Feb. 18 against Laurier.
The Thunderwolves remain eighth in the ratings performance index standings. The top 12 teams by RPI make the postseason.
