A last-second buzzer-beater by the Thunder women’s basketball team at the end of the first quarter set high hopes for the rest of the game but they were ultimately left disappointed, losing their season opener 71-68 to the George Brown Huskies.
The Thunder put in work during the first half of their game with guard/forward Rita Sibo controlling the floor and Sierra Peck heavy on the rebounds, but their plan fell apart in the back of the third quarter when the Huskies took away the lead bringing it to 60-51. The Huskies stepped over the Thunder in the last three minutes.
“Our whole game plan was just cool and collected and in the third quarter things started to go wrong,” said Jamie McLean, head coach for the Thunder women’s basketball team. “We lost that sort of collectedness, we lost our focus, we lost our patience and we started to get away from what was working and [the Huskies] noticed and started to pile on points while we were falling behind and getting mad at each other.”
Guard Arianne Gagnon put down a three-pointer at the beginning of the fourth quarter which looked to mark a comeback but lost traction quickly.
The Thunder is heavy with rookies in the new season and have a lot to prove going forward.
“For the most part it was a lot of jitters for the first game of the season,” said McLean. “We’ve got a lot of rookies that are learning how to play the right way and I think tonight we just lacked the experience we needed to finish a game and hold on to a lead when we had it.”
It’s a sad start for the Thunder but Mclean still has high hopes for his team.
“The thing in this league is that anybody can beat anybody on any given night,” said McLean. “If we can just keep our focus and keep growing as a team we’ve got potential and hopefully we can battle for a position at provincials.”