KITCHENER, ON: The Niagara Knights women's basketball team (4-11) traveled to Conestoga to play the Condors in their final road game of the regular season. In a special 'Thumbs Down to Cancer' game supporting our 5th year women's volleyball player, Abbey Gooder, in her fight against thyroid cancer, the women's team took care of business and brought home a 65-54 win over the Condors.
Conestoga came out of the gate strong in this one, outscoring the Knights 19-10 in the first quarter. The Knights kept the start of this game close, but the Condors were able to take control with just over 2 minutes remaining and scored the final few points in the 1st quarter to take the 9-point lead. The 2nd quarter was a much different game as the Knights scored the first 5 points of the quarter to bring the game within 4. From there it was a back-and-forth affair with a strong finish to the half that brought the Knights within 5.
The Knights would come back from the halftime break with motivation and would allow the Condors to score only 17 points in the final 2 quarters combined, while they would go on to score 33. Lyric Shallow and Emma Vendittelli each scored 5 of the team's 17 points in the 4th quarter while the Knights only allowed 2 Condors to score points in the final frame.
Lyric and Emma were the top scorers for the Knights overall in the game. Lyric had 21 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 steals while Emma contributed 17 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 steal. 5th year guard Aisja Strachan had a lovely double-double with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 2 assists. 2nd year guard Alyah Pereira also had 10 points and added 2 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 steals.
Head coach Allie Columbus was excited to see her team come together and play arguably their best game so far this season. When asked about this game specifically, she said "Different players stepped up, took on different roles, and we played as a cohesive unit and shared the ball".
The Knights will hope to carry this momentum to their final home game of the season when they host the Fanshawe Falcons. Tipoff is scheduled for 6pm on Saturday, February 14th at the Simplii Financial Athletic Centre in Welland. If you cannot join us in person, all OCAA basketball action can be watched live at ocaalive.com.
For more information on the Knights' teams, please visit us at www.goknights.ca
