THUNDER BAY – The Lakehead Thunderwolves didn’t have a lot of rest between games, and it showed in the early going.
But after struggling in the opening quarter on Sunday against the visiting Algoma Thunderbirds, the T-Wolves regrouped and managed to do just enough to pull out a 59-50 win in their pre-season finale, giving them a 5-4 record in non-conference play.
The weekend sweep, hosting their own tournament at the C.J. Sanders Fieldhouse, was all about building up toward the start of regular-season play and the defending national champion McMaster Marauders at home next Friday and Saturday night.
It’s still a work in progress, as Sunday’s early struggles showcased, but there are plenty of positives heading into OUA play.
“We’ve got to get prepared for McMaster,” said guard Tiffany Reynolds, who has missed pre-season time to injury on 4-of-7 shooting, tops on a team that hit just 21 of 72 field-goal attempts in the afternoon affair.
“They were No. 1 in the country last year, a pretty good team. This weekend we just came out and focused hard on defence and I think we executed the plan very well. It helped our offence out.”
It needed all he help it could get in the early going.
The Thunderbirds, who finished 5-19 last season, led most the way in a low-scoring first quarter and took an 11-10 advantage into the second.
The Thunderwolves finally jumped in front for the first time 1:40 into the second quarter, rookie Kate McPhail hitting the go-ahead bucket that gave Lakehead the lead for good.
McPhail, who hails from Stoney Creek, Ont., finished with eight points and a team-high nine rebounds, and said the tune-up will help the team play better and stronger once the games start to count in the standings.
“It definitely gave us more confidence and we’ll be ready to go,” McPhail said.
It just took them some time to put it all together in their third game in three days, but once they found an energy surge, things started going their way.
“Just our mental toughness, as well got us through the game,” McPhail said.
Back-to-back threes by Nikki Ylagan and Reynolds upped their lead to eight at the half and it increased to 11 early in the third, when Kielly McDonough buried a three-pointer.
But the Thunderbirds weren’t quite ready to cede the game.
Karly Fracalanza dropped a pair of threes and a pair of free throws to lead an 10-0 run that pulled Algoma within a point, trailing 37-36.
The Wolves put it away to end the third quarter, going on an 11-0 run of their own, punctuated by a McDonough trey, to lead 51-39 after three. Algoma never got closer than an eight-point deficit the rest of the way.
“Day 3 is a tough one, the third day in a row,” said LU coach Jon Kreiner. “Both teams were really tired. Our plan was to play our bench, play our kids … It was nice to see what our bench can do out there.
“One of our focuses too was to get better defensively, to shut down a high-scoring Memorial team at 44 points the first night and really lock down Winnipeg defensively the second night and again, another 50 points today. I’m proud of our team.”
Fracalanza led Algoma with 14 points. Former Westgate Tiger Kayla Gallo had six points and two rebounds for the Thunderbirds, while twin sister Keyra had three points, all on free throws.
