Jan. 15 Niagara College sports report
The Niagara College Knights men’s basketball team (7-4) made a winning return to Ontario Colleges Athletic Association play by coming back from the Christmas Break with a 87-78 home victory over the Conestoga Condors (4-7).
The Knights built quarter leads of 24-18, 48-37 and 69-59 to push their winning streak to four games.
Leading the way for Niagara were: Raheem Dennis with 23 points; E.L. Crossley product Riley Bleich with six rebounds and 17 points on 5-7 shooting from beyond the arc; Kenneth Reckley, Jr. with 15 points and seven rebounds; and, Reggie Williams with 13 points and seven boards.
Conestoga was led by Mark Pohner with 17 points.
“A solid start to the second half of our schedule after a long holiday break. We were able to get playing time for most of our guys and got great offensive contributions from Raheem Dennis and rookie Riley Bleich with 23 and 17 off the bench,” Niagara head coach Phil Mosley said. “We are still working on consistency and discipline to finish games. We will prepare now to travel to Redeemer for a tough mid-week matchup.”
Bleich was named Niagara College’s male athlete of the week.
Niagara is at Redeemer (2-10) Wednesday before hosting Humber (7-4) Saturday at 3 p.m.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Niagara’s women’s basketball squad (7-3) also had a successful start to the second half of the season thanks to a 75-56 home victory over the Conestoga Condors (2-8).
Niagara built quarter leads of 16-12, 36-26 and 60-40 to improve its home record to 4-2.
Top performers for the Knights were: Lexxus Bell with 12 points; Taryn Mitchell with 12 points and six rebounds; Destiny Osadebamwen with 11 points and nine rebounds; Janee Harrison with nine points; Molly Taylor with eight points and eight rebounds; and, Jamira Rousseau with eight points and six rebounds.
Top scorer for Conestoga was Tanja Damjanovic with 21 points.
“Overall I thought it was a good performance out of the break. Obviously we’ve had some change in our roster adding Destiny Osadebamwen and getting her incorporated the last little bit has been great, but like all new things it takes time to adjust and be comfortable,” Niagara head coach Chris Rao said. “I think we took a step in the right direction as a team in that regard. There are things to improve on but we had six kids score between 8-11 points all on 9-11 shots and 11 players score in the game overall, so it was a balanced attack which I’m happy about. We got refocused on attacking the rim the second half and did a great job executing on our adjustments. We got 15 boards from our starting guards (Jamira, Lex and Taryn) which is awesome and was a big reason we played so well. It was also cool to see Destiny get comfortable with her teammates and watching her put up her stat line was fun too.”
Osadebamwen, a six-foot guard from Toronto who played in the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association with Crestwood Prep, was named Niagara College’s female athlete of the week.
Niagara is at Redeemer (2-8) Wednesday before hosting Humber (6-3) Saturday at 1 p.m.
MEN’S VOLLEYBALL
Niagara’s men’s volleyball team put up a .500 week to start the second half of its season.
The Knights (8-5) recorded a 3-1 victory (26-24, 25-22, 18-25 and 25-22) over Humber (8-5) and fell 3-2 (15-25, 25-20, 27-25, 23-25 and 11-15) to St. Clair (9-3).
Top performers for Niagara against Humber were: Carter Thurman with 24 assists, five digs, two service aces and two kills; Tyler Carmichael with 10 kills, four digs and one block; and, Matthew Takacs with nine kills, three digs and a service ace.
“Those are the games that you love to be apart of. This team is dialled in and playing with confidence every single point,” Niagara head coach Steve Stone said. “As a coach, it makes me so proud that I don’t even need to coach these boys, They know what they need to do and are capable of working through it together. All-around a great game from everyone and it starts with how the boys prepare themselves mentally and right now we’re in a very good space.”
Leading the way against St. Clair were: Thurman with 27 assists, 13 digs, two kills and three blocks; Takacs with 11 kills, 15 digs, two blocks and two service aces; Mitch Churipuy with 13 digs; and, Tyler Carmichael with nine kills.
“The boys came out a little flat in that one and just weren’t able to close out when they needed to. We had plenty of chances and opportunities so we need to capitalize on those,” Stone said.
Niagara is at Conestoga (8-3) Thursday.
WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
Niagara’s women’s volleyball team (7-6) stumbled out of the gate against strong competition to start the second half of the season, falling 3-0 to Humber (17-25, 21-25 and 13-25) and 3-0 (17-25, 19-25 and 17-25) to St. Clair.
Humber improved to 13-0 while St. Clair’s record climbed to 10-2.
Playing well for Niagara against Humber were: Montanna Taylor with 17 assists, six kills, six digs and a service ace; Sam Cormier with six kills, a service ace, three blocks and a dig; and, Emmah Gmoser with five kills and two digs.
“The ladies competed and worked hard all game. It’s a tough first game coming against the top team and trying new systems, but I thought the ladies were working hard and making adjustments,” Stone said. “Nothing to hang our heads about, just learn and move forward. If we can tighten up the execution on some things and minimize the oppositions runs, we’re going to be pretty good.”
Leading the way against St. Clair were: Rachael Bickford with 12 assists, two digs and a kill; Taylor with five kills, 12 digs, an assist and a service ace; and, Kyleigh Baxter and Cormier with four kills each.
“St. Clair is a tough opponent but I’m happy with the girls compete level. We need to stop mid-game runs for the other team and really start executing our systems which will come with time,” he said. “This group will keep learning and only get better each game which I believe we’re already proving.”
Niagara’s women’s coach Elaine Pilgrim-Susi has stepped away from coaching the women’s volleyball team and Stone is now at the helm of both programs.
Niagara travels to Conestoga (8-4) Thursday to complete a stretch where it plays the top three teams in the OCAA’s West Division.
