Knights head to semifinals
The Niagara College Knights women’s basketball team punched its ticket to the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association Final Four with a 75-53 victory over the visiting Fanshawe Falcons Saturday in quarter-final play.
Niagara built quarter leads of 25-10, 39-24 and 52-35 to record the victory.
Leading the way for the Knights were: Janee Harrison with 21 points, five rebounds and six steals and three blocks; Destiny Osadebamwen with 15 points and nine rebounds; Niagara College Female Athlete of the Week Molly Taylor with 11 points and 11 rebounds; Taryn Mitchell with nine points, six steals and five rebounds; and, Jamira Rousseau with eight points, seven assists, five steals and four boards.
“We played really well and we played really hard,” Niagara head coach Chris Rao said. “With them, they play hard for 40 minutes and it was a goal of ours to come out and match their intensity and even surpass it. I thought we did a good job of that.”
The Knights opened the game on a 10-0 run and kept up the intensity for the entire game. They are playing some of their best basketball of the season at exactly the right time.
“We are getting better, for sure. I still think there is a lot of room for improvement which is good but we’re trending up and it has been good basketball for the last two games which is always a good sign.”
Making the Final Four this season is what Rao expected of his squad.
“When the recruiting class came in and I was looking around at everyone, I thought we had a really good chance to medal,” he said. “We earned the opportunity to say we have the opportunity to medal this upcoming weekend and it is right about where we should be. We obviously want to play for a gold medal and that is the next goal.”
A number of things have gone right for the Knights this season.
“We — knock on wood — have been pretty healthy and that is a big thing. We ran into some illness in the playoffs last year and that really hurt us. We have good depth and we have a lot of players who can do the job and are talented. They are not in lesser roles but they are in different roles than they are capable of so that has been important and we have good veteran leadership from kids who have been around for three or four years.”
The last time Niagara made it to the OCAA Final Four was in 2022 when it lost to Humber by five in the semifinals and then defeated Algonquin in the bronze medal game.
Returning from that team are Harrison, Taylor, Rousseau, Michell and Lexxus Bell. All five local players started in the quarter-final win over Fanshawe.
The experience from 2022 will help this time around.
“It is huge,” Rao said. “Being in the same format, this is a well-tested group all around. The kids have played in big games and that is super important this time of year.”
Niagara plays host Lambton in the semifinals on Friday at 5 p.m. with the winner advancing to the gold medal game Saturday at 5 p.m.
Niagara played Lambton in the fourth game of the regular season Nov. 3 and lost 66-63.
“We have to be solid with our fundamentals. They are a good team and they do a lot of good things but we can hang with them,” Rao said. “Their pressure gets to people a lot and if you let it get to you they will jump on you. We have to take care of the ball and we will be fine.”
