Recap The Court

Jacob Smith

The TMU Bold women’s basketball team opened their 2023 regular season at home on Friday night hosting the Lakehead Thunderwolves for the first of two matchups over the weekend. New faces on the floor for the Bold, new leadership for the Thunderwolves, TMU’s rookies made a big impact as the Bold came away with a 70-53 win.

Arguably the most prominent rookie is Catrina Garvey. If you watched TMU during the preseason you saw a lot of Catrina and she didn’t take long to make an impact on this game, scoring five points and recording an assist and a block, just in the first quarter. Catrina found her spots offensively and she was matched by Ally Burke for the Thunderwolves as both sides went back and forth.

Ally Burke gave Lakehead relief from their paint focused offence which was getting shut down by Haley Fedick who had a pair of blocks in the first half. TMU found themselves getting out in transition off a block or defensive rebound often, and their paint presence allowed them to hold a 37-29 lead at half.

The second half is where we saw the presence around the rim TMU has, shine. Whether it was and-one opportunities from players like Garvey or Jayme Foreman, or the defence of Kaillie Hall and Haley Fedick, TMU made Lakehead’s life difficult to the tune of a 25 per cent field goal percentage in the third and 18 per cent in the fourth.

TMU kept Lakehead at a distance of roughly 10 points throughout the game, but in the fourth the Bold’s transition offence caught a spark and they put away the Thunderwolves. Contributions offensively from five different players in the quarter, TMU sealed their victory and move into the rematch with a 1-0 record.