The Thunder women’s basketball team came into its second-last home game of the season ready to play and defeated the Georgian Grizzlies 87-52 with a dominating performance.
Although the Thunder are on top of the East division, a common theme for them all season has been an abundance of turnovers.
“We talked about 17 (turnovers) being the key number for us,” said Laura Bond, the head coach of the Thunder. “I read a stat saying that for every turnover over 17 your chances of losing increase by one per cent. So, today we were all about 17 turnovers.”
The Thunder were strong from the start, outscoring their opponents 22-13 in the first quarter. The Grizzlies quickly ran into foul trouble giving away 10 foul shots.
The second quarter was no different, and the Thunder offence was electric. The Grizzlies were shut down due to strong defensive play, and guard Jeylinh Bui was able to throw down 10 points in the quarter leading the Thunder to a 48-27 halftime lead.
At the half, the Thunder had only 10 turnovers, a significant improvement from previous weeks.
Coming into the third quarter, the home team had all the momentum. The Thunder accumulated a whopping 27 points, and confined the Grizzlies to 15. By the end of the third, they lead by a score of 75-42.
The game ended 87-52. Bui led the team with 26 points and forward Katie Flansbury had 11 points. The Thunder finished the game with 17 turnovers.
“Our goal was to stay under 20 and we made sure of that,” said Bui. “In the first half we only had 10, and our coach told us to stay composed.”
The Thunder played a double header in Toronto prior to their home game. Their first game ended with a score of 66-51 over George Brown and forward Jessica Basquin led the game with 17 points and 14 rebounds.
On Jan. 30, they sealed off another win against Centennial in a low-scoring affair 48-39.
The Thunder play their last game of the season at home versus Durham College on Feb. 13.