Feb. 3 Niagara College Report: Basketball and volleyball

The Niagara College men’s basketball team snapped a four-game losing streak with a 90-82 overtime victory against Fanshawe.

“This was a very big win for our guys at this point in the season,” Niagara head coach Phil Mosley said. “A total team effort as players are starting find their confidence both in themselves and each other. We need take this momentum into our two home games this weekend and finish the season strong.”

Niagara improved to 5-10 on the season by outscoring Fanshawe 11-3 in the extra period. Fanshawe fell to 9-7 with the loss.

Earlier in the week, Niagara lost 105-97 to Humber. The Knights were done in by a second quarter in which they were outscored 33-16 by Humber (12-4).

“We are in a tough stretch in our schedule and Humber in their gym is always difficult. We matched their intensity and level of play to start the game and finish the game, but fell victim to a very poor second quarter and were unable to make up the difference,” Mosley said. “Johnnie Richardson played arguably one of his best games in his career and is emerging as one of the top guards in the OCAA.”

Performing well against Humber were: Rahim Bardi, 27 points and eight rebounds; Johnnie Richardson, 25 points; and, Lequan Hylton, 12 points.

Leading the way for Niagara against Fanshawe were: Richardson, 28 points and nine rebounds; Kennon Larmand, 19 points and six rebounds; Daniel Lokole, 14 points; Hylton, nine points, 11 rebounds and eight assists; Sterphone Augustin, seven points and 11 boards; and, Bardi, seven points and six assists.

The Knights play the Sault (2-14) at home Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Niagara College’s women’s basketball team fell to 1-13 in league play after dropping a 95-55 decision to Humber and losing 64-57 versus Fanshawe.

Top performers for Niagara against Humber (13-1) were: Terin Hultink, 18 points and 15 rebounds; Jessyka Maliksi, nine points; and, Leanne Dekorte, seven points and 16 rebounds.

Leading the way against Fanshawe (14-1) were: Maliksi, 16 points; Kaisen MacKinnon, 11 points; Beth deBoer, nine points; Hultink, eight points and 15 boards; and, Dekorte, eight points and 11 rebounds.

Niagara hosts the Sault (0-14) Saturday at 6 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL

Niagara’s women’s volleyball squad had a winless week, falling 3-2 (23-25, 19-25, 26-24. 25-23 and 9-15) to Humber and 3-0 (22-25, 13-25 and 19-25) against Fanshawe.

The Knights fell to 8-6 with the losses.

Niagara’s leading point scorers versus Humber (11-3) were Montanna Taylor (9), Natasha Desjardins (8), Kristen Oudman (8) and Tamara Edwards (6).

Scoring points for the Knights versus Fanshawe (14-1) were Desjardins (10), Oudman (6), Taylor (5) and Victoria Golebiowski (5).

“I thought we started off the match well,” head coach Steve Dow said. “We were up early and capitalizing on Fanshawe’s mistakes. With that being said, Fanshawe is too strong of a team to try to win solely off their mistakes. They have a number of strong players but when you are up against the best player in the country, you know sooner or later they will score and score in bunches.

“Unfortunately, we started making mistakes and couldn’t stop their runs. They simply out worked us in almost every phase of the game. We have played the top three teams in our division over our last four games, and look back to getting into practices where we can fix some of the holes they exposed.”

Niagara hosts Redeemer (7-8) Thursday at 8 p.m.

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL

The Niagara men’s volleyball team fell to 8-6 in OCAA play following a 3-0 (15-25, 15-25 and 22-25) loss to Humber and a 3-1 defeat to Fanshawe (22-25, 26-24, 22-25 and 17-25).

“As a group, we recognize that we’re in a bit of a slump right now and we are working hard to find that consistent level of play that we experienced in the first half of the season,” Niagara head coach Tommy Sloan said. “Our execution was just a little off and we’ve been susceptible to giving up serving runs lately. We’re looking forward to a productive week of practice leading into our match against Redeemer.”

Niagara’s top point scorers against Fanshawe (7-8) were Elijah Bugiardini (15), Colin Prelaz (14), Samuel Otten (12) and Kyle Thiessen (9).

Leading the way for Niagara with points against Humber (14-0) were Otten (10) and Bugiardini (6).

Niagara hosts Redeemer (10-5) Thursday at 6 p.m.