Wolves held in check

The Windsor Lancers could have not scored a single point in the second half on Saturday night and still walked away with a three-point victory.

It was just one of those nights for the Lakehead Thunderwolves women’s basketball team. Held to what’s believed to be a school record low 11 points in the first half, when all was said and done they were staring up at a 67-31 loss and a weekend sweep at the hands of the No. 2 team in the nation.

It’s a loss the host Wolves (10-6) would just as soon forget about, as they try to regroup for the stretch run of the OUA regular season.

“Basically what we said when we went in the change room is let’s just put this one behind us. We just got our asses whooped, so let’s just move on for our next weekend of games,” said first-year guard Katie Ulakovic, who showed plenty of hustle in a losing cause, earning two steals and a blocked shot from the guard position, in a game that saw Tasia McKenna lead LU with just seven points.

It was just too difficult to get inside on the Lancers and work the post against Windsor’s twin towers, Jessica Gordon and Iva Peklova, who stand 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-5 respectively.

Throw in 19 points from OUA leading scorer Jessica Clemencon, who at 6-foot-2 equals the tallest the Wolves have to offer, and an atrocious 10-for-54 performance from the floor, and it got ugly in a hurry.

“I think usually we have at least one person step up every game, and this game we didn’t really have anyone who was scoring, so it wasn’t working for us offensively,” said Ulakovic, a Hammarskjold High School graduate.

Lakehead coach Jon Kreiner said he accomplished his goal defensively at the Thunderdome, holding the high-scoring Lancers to 68 points, but games are won at both ends of the court, he said, but three points in the second quarter just doesn’t do it.

“We struggled offensively big time tonight, and even when we were wide open it was just something that wasn’t going for us tonight,” Kreiner said.

“We settled for some shots, and they weren’t falling. I don’t think Sarah Gordon got a single shot off in the first half. Tasia got two or three off. Obviously they were trying to make those girls put the ball on the floor versus taking shots.”

The Wolves trailed 34-11 at the half, and only managed to score two points, by Darcy Zinck, in the first eight minutes of the third before Emily Ross netted pair from the line and Sarah Gordon sank a basket off a feed from Ulakovic to close the gap to 30.

But Miah-Marie Langlois had the answer for that and more, launching a trey to put Windsor up 50-17 after three.

McKenna, who closed to within 93 points of Kathy Harrison’s all-time Lakehead scoring mark, had four fourth-quarter points, a night after being held off the board in the second half.

Even when things were going right for the Wolves they went wrong on this night. With two minutes to go in the third Ulakovic scored a three-pointer, only to have the officials call a foul on a teammate, negating the points.

With the win the Lancers upped their record to13-2, leaving them two points behind Western in the OUA West, with a game in hand.

The Wolves should get some respite next weekend when they take on 0-16 Waterloo on the road for a pair.