Jan. 27 Niagara College Report: Basketball and volleyball

Niagara College’s women’s volleyball teamed pushed its Ontario Colleges Athletic Association record to 8-4 with a 3-0 victory (25-20, 25-16 and 25-22) over Conestoga.

“Overall, I’m happy with the result that we had tonight. It’s never easy to go into someone else’s gym and win three straight,” Niagara head coach Steve Dow said.

The Knights have now won two straight matches.

“With that being said, I thought we came out a little flat, and we were missing a killer instinct,” Dow said. “We still need to continue to focus on doing a little things right for longer stretches of time if we want to be able to be talked about with the best teams in the league.

“We have a big week coming up for us against Humber and Fanshawe. It will be a good test for us as we gear up for playoffs.”

Leading the way for Niagara were Kristen Oudman (Wainfleet), 12 points; Natasha Desjardins (Welland), seven points; and Tamara Edwards (Vineland), seven points.

Desjardins was named an Ontario Colleges Athletic Association Star of the Week and Canadian Colleges Athletic Association Athlete of the Week for Jan. 20-24.

Niagara is at Humber Thursday at 8 p.m.

OCAA West standings: Fanshawe 13-0; Humber 10-3; St. Clair 9-3-1; Niagara 8-4; Mohawk 8-5-1; Redeemer 7-7; Sheridan 6-8; Cambrian 2-11; Conestoga 2-11; Boreal 0-13.

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL

The Niagara men’s volleyball team lost 3-2 (24-26, 26-24, 25-18, 19-25 and 15-10) to Conestoga to fall to 8-4 in OCAA action.

Leading Niagara were: Sam Otten, 19 points; Ashton Fehr, 14 points;Colin Prelaz, 13 points; and setter Robbie Zalewski, 44 assists.

Niagara is at Humber Thursday at 6 p.m.

OCAA West standings: Humber 13-0; Conestoga 9-4; Redeemer 9-5; Niagara 8-4; St. Clair 7-6; Mohawk 7-7; Fanshawe 6-7; Sheridan 6-8; Boreal 1-12; Cambrian 0-13.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Niagara’s men’s basketball team dropped to 4-9 in OCAA play following losses to the Lambton Lions (84-74) and the St. Clair Saints (74-68).

Leading the way for Niagara against Lambton were: Lequan Hylton, 24 points and six rebounds; Johnnie Richardson (Saint Paul), 21 points; Rahim Bardi (Governor Simcoe), 14 points and seven boards; and, Kennon Larmand (Centennial, Ridley College), eight points and five rebounds.

Niagara fell behind 23-10 in the first quarter against Lambton and couldn’t recover.

“We are continuously asking our guys to compete and tonight we made positive strides in that area,” Niagara head coach Phil Mosley said. “We defended well in spurts, but need to be more consistent on both ends to turn these games into wins.”

Top performers for Niagara against St. Clair were: Richardson, 17 points and six boards; Larmand, 16 points; Hylton, 13 points, six rebounds and five assists; Bardi, 11 points and seven rebounds; and, Reese Radobenko (Centennial), nine points in seven minutes of floor time.

“We battled one of the top teams in the OCAA and with a strong defensive effort remained in contention for a victory to the very end,” Mosley said. “We need to find more effective ways to generate scoring, especially when we hold teams well below their scoring average.

“Our guys are committed to stay together in this process and look forward to their next opportunity to compete and grow as a team.”

Niagara is at Humber Thursday at 8 p.m.

OCAA West standings: St. Clair 11-3; Sheridan 11-3; Humber 11-4; Redeemer 10-3; Fanshawe 9-5; Mohawk 9-5; Lambton 6-8; Conestoga 5-9; Niagara 4-9; Sault 1-14; Canadore 0-14.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The Niagara women’s basketball team also had a winless weekend, falling 50-44 to Lambton and 73-41 against St. Clair.

“The efforts we are putting forward since the start of the second half of the season have been good enough to compete with anyone we’ve come across,” head coach Chris Rao said. “Defensively, we were tremendous only giving up 29 points over the last three quarters (versus Lambton) but the game comes down to turnovers and we just had way too many to finish the game the way we needed to win.”

Leading the way for Niagara against Lambton were: Terin Hultink (Smithville Christian), 13 points and 16 rebounds; Kaisen Mackinnon, six points and 10 boards; Leanne Dekorte (Heritage Christian), four points and 16 rebounds; and, Mackenzie Schroeder (Eden), six points and five rebounds.

Performing well for Niagara against St. Clair were: Francine Smith (Denis Morris), 13 points; Jessyka Maliksi, 11 points; and, Beth deBoer (Eden), 10 points.

“St. Clair showed us today why they only have three losses this season,” Rao said. “That being said, we didn’t quit either when we easily could have. Our girls have shown that they will continue to play hard and finish, and at the end of the day, I can’t ask for more than that.”

Niagara is at Humber Thursday at 6 p.m.

OCAA West standings: Humber 12-1; Fanshawe 12-1; St Clair 10-3; Lambton 9-4; Sheridan 8-4; Conestoga 6-6; Mohawk 3-9; Redeemer 2-10; Niagara 1-11; Sault 0-14.