Gryphon women start slow, but rally to drop Lakehead
GUELPH – The Guelph Gryphons recovered from a slow start to drop the Lakehead Thunderwolves 79-52 in OUA women’s basketball play Friday at the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre.
Lakehead scored the first nine points of the match while the Gryphs missed their first four shots before they called a timeout, had a little talk and then came out and made a layup. That all happened in the first 2:01 of the game.
The Thunderwolves led 22-17 at the end of the first quarter, but the Gryphs really came alive in the second and third quarters when they outscored Lakehead 51-16. The Thunderwolves were held to five points in the second quarter as Guelph surged to a 41-27 lead at halftime that the Gryphs extended to 68-38 by the end of the third quarter.
A total of 11 Gryphs scored points in the game led by Trinity Papamandjaris, who has scored Guelph’s opening bucket on a layup, with 17. Alexis Wright added 12 while Julia Colavecchia had nine and Rain Jhaj and Alexandra Urban each had eight.
Papamandjaris had six rebounds while Renee Armstrong had four assists and Colavecchia had four steals and three blocks.
Ally Burke collected 12 points for Lakehead while Kirpa Barr netted 10 and Paula Lopez had eight. Kelly-Ann Coulombe had six rebounds while Burke had four assists, Sara Azzolini had three steals and Coulombe had the lone block.
The Gryphs shot 42 percent on field goals, 36 percent on three-pointers and sank all six of their free throws. They also grabbed 36 rebounds and had 12 assists, 15 turnovers, 31 points off Lakehead turnovers, 13 second-chance points, 40 points in the paint and 32 points from their bench.
The Thunderwolves shot 36 percent on field goals, 42 percent on three-pointers, 44 percent on free throws, hauled down 30 rebounds and had 10 assists, 29 turnovers, 10 points off Gryphon turnovers, nine second-chance points, 14 points in the paint and 16 points from their bench.
The win was the fourth in a row for the Gryphs. They lead the West Division at 9-4 and are followed by the Waterloo Warriors at 8-4, Laurier Golden Hawks at 7-5, Western Mustangs at 6-6, Windsor Lancers at 5-6 and Algoma Thunderbirds at 1-10.
Lakehead is fourth in the Central Division at 4-9.
The Gryphs are to host the Brock Badgers, second in the Central Division at 8-4, Saturday at 6 p.m. at the GGAC. Both teams figure they’re scheduled to play a top-10 team in the country as Brock has Guelph ranked ninth and the Gryphs have the Badgers ranked 10th. Overall, the Gryphs entered the week ranked 17th and Brock was ranked 18th.
- Guelph Sports Journal