Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
On Sunday, November 16th at the George Leach Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, the Algoma Thunderbirds women’s and men’s basketball programs hosted the Lakehead Thunderwolves in OUA action, with both Thunderbird squads fighting hard but ultimately coming up short against strong Lakehead performances.
In the women’s matchup, Algoma fell 69–46 despite a determined effort throughout the afternoon. Lakehead’s Keira Chow led the Thunderwolves with 13 points and four rebounds in 29 minutes, while teammate Kelly Ann Coulombe delivered a dominant double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds. Eva Guilera also added 11 points for the visitors. For the Thunderbirds, Riya Donnelly paced the offence with 11 points, while Garden River’s Sadie Grawbarger provided a strong all-around performance, contributing eight points and pulling down 10 rebounds in 35 minutes of play. Bernadette Maranan rounded out Algoma’s top scorers with six points and three rebounds.
The men’s contest saw Algoma drop an 87–59 decision to a sharp-shooting Lakehead team. The Thunderbirds were led by Kal-El Alejo, who scored 13 points and grabbed three rebounds in 30 minutes of action. Sault Ste. Marie’s own Logan Whitmell added 11 points and six rebounds, while Oliver Kristoffersen chipped in 10 points and five boards. Lakehead’s offence was powered by a standout performance from Harold Santacruz, who recorded a game-high 24 points and 11 rebounds. Keylian Coulibaly contributed 20 points, and Gavin Ashworth added 15 as the Thunderwolves controlled the pace throughout the evening.
Thunderbird women’s coach Katie Hamilton told Saultsports that “the long and the short for us, is we need to score the ball when we have the opportunities. We feel like we are getting the looks we want, either at the rim or from the three and we need to start converting those. Defensively, we had some lapses where we went away from the game plan and Lakehead made us pay for those errors and went on some runs in certain stretches that hurt us. Our work ethic is there, the girls are battling hard. We need to be able to stick with things for 40 minutes and hit some shots. We turn our focus to U of T who again is a good match up for us, but we will need to execute for an entire game to compete and expect positive results.”
“Staying focused for the full forty minutes has been a challenge for us. We had a bad start to the game and put ourselves in a hole early. We were able to battle back but again to start the third quarter we had unforced turnovers that led to easy baskets and the last five minutes of the third we weren’t good as a collective. We will address the issue and get back to work this week as we prepare for Toronto,” added Algoma men’s coach Ryan Vetrie.
The Thunderbirds return home action next weekend with a pair of games at the George Leach Centre. On Friday, November 21st, they host the University of Toronto Blues, followed by a matchup against the TMU Bold on Saturday, November 22nd. Tip-off for both evenings is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. for the women and 8:00 p.m. for the men.
