Jon Kreiner knows the road to the playoffs for his Lakehead Thunderwolves squad will likely have to include a win over the Laurentian Lady Vees.
That’s why, even though it came as part of the non-conference Zanatta Invitational, the women’s basketball head coach was happy his team rallied from a second-half deficit to top Laurentian 62-60 in the Thunderdome on Friday.
“It was encouraging in the fact that we got down by eight and took a five-point lead, so that’s a swing of 13 points in the second half,” Kreiner said.
This second contest was much more challenging than their tournament opener on Thursday against the expansion Algoma Thunderbirds, who they defeated 69-50.
Even though it won’t count in the standings, the players know they can compete against a conference rival that has brought in a new coach to turn their program around.
“It definitely gives us a little more confidence,” said fifth-year senior guard Ayse Kalkin, who led the club with 14 points. “We started off fairly rough once again but I think the other girls kept us in it for sure.”
The Thunderwolves’ received a boost from a pair of new forwards. Blair McNaughton and Essa Jacobsen combined to score 19 points, with McNaughton going 2-4 from three-point range, and wrack up nine rebounds.
Laurentian came out ahead after a back-and-forth first quarter, and carried a 42-39 lead into the halftime intermission.
The bulk of the Lady Vees’ first half offence was courtesy of a fast break based attack that capitalized on the aggressive Lakehead defence. Laurentian shot 48 per cent from the field in the first half, and converted many easy lay-ups.
“They really our press scouted out and were able to exploit us off of it,” Kreiner said. “Not only were we able to not generate much in the first half, they were scoring pretty easily.”
Lakehead’s defence tightened up in the second half as they brought the Lady Vees’ shooting percentage down to 31 per cent. The decrease in shooting percentage translated to limiting Laurentian to 28 second half points.
The Thunderwolves rebounded in the third quarter, and turned the tables to enter the fourth with a two-point lead.
Lakehead expanded the lead to six with three minutes remaining, but a three-pointer from Erin Simpson brought Laurentian to within three.
The Lady Vees had two opportunities to tie or take the lead while down two, but on their best look Jamie Soffer lost the handle on her drive to the basket and turned the ball over out of bounds.
After the Thunderwolves leaned heavily upon the now-graduated Carolyn Fragale and leadership for the past few years, Kalkin knows she will assume a portion of the void and is still adjusting.
“It definitely is nerve-wracking considering Carolyn was our consistent scorer, but hopefully the other girls will pick up some slack as well to help us pick up wins,” Kalkan said.
Kreiner was encouraged with his veteran guard’s ability to persevere through a tough defence, and adapt her play once she accumulated a few fouls.
“Ayse got in foul trouble, and I thought she played smart after that. She was able to stay in the game and still play 25 minutes,” the hoops coach said.
“She struggled in the first half, I thought they played great wall defence on her and really kept her from slashing so what we did was move the ball and got Ayse the ball in areas where she could attack with a little more space.”
Beyond the arc: Kalkin secured seven rebounds, with three of them coming on the offensive end, to lead the Wolves...Danielle Harris led the Lady Vees in scoring with 13 points...The Wolves turned the ball over 23 times against eight steals, while Laurentian had 24 turnovers and six steals...Lakehead will conclude their host tournament against Manitoba at 6 p.m. on Saturday
