Humber women's basketball will be heading to its fifth conference game since 2015, hanging on to defeat the Niagara Knights (9-2, 2nd West) in the semifinal, 80-74.
OCAA Player of the Year Miea Campbell-Johnson finished with a game-high 30 points and 18 rebounds, while Kia Watt added 20 points and four rebounds. Nikki Ylagan and Brittney English round out Humber's double-digit scorers, finishing with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Humber's offence came out red-hot in the opening quarter, as MCJ and Ylagan combined for 21 of Humber's 30 points.
At the break, Humber had a 16-point lead, 41-31.
With a 21-point lead after three quarters, Humber looked like it could cruise to its 15th OCAA title game, but Niagara had a different idea. Niagara's defence held the Hawks to 17.6 per cent (3-for-17) in the final frame, cutting Humber's lead to four with 22 seconds remaining. Two made free throws from Watt iced the game, and Humber held on to win, 80-74.
Source: Humber Hawks
The St. Clair College women's basketball team (11-0) pushed past Algonquin College (Ottawa) 78-50 in their OCAA championship semi-final Wednesday night at the SportsPlex and advanced to the gold medal final for the third straight season. The Saints will face Humber College (Etobicoke) for gold on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. The Hawks won the other semi-final by a score of 80-74 but had to outlast a pesky Niagara College (Welland) team who nearly erased a 26-point deficit in the second half. St. Clair is in search of its first provincial title since 2004.
A short rostered Algonquin squad scored the opening basket but the Saints were relentless the remainder of the first quarter and found themselves ahead 28-4 heading to the second. A fairly even second quarter still resulted in a 45-19 lead for St. Clair entering halftime. Algonquin was courageous in the third putting together their best quarter and outscored the Saints 20-16 while shooting 40 per cent from the floor. But the hill was too high a climb and the Saints were able to give their reserves some playing time as they cruised down the stretch.
Logan Kucera (Chatham, Ont.) was named the St. Clair Player the of Game after scoring 16 points to go with seven rebounds and three assists. Sister Jana Kucera (Chatham, Ont.) recorded a game-high 20 points and added seven rebounds, three assists and a steal. Ciara Emery (Windsor, Ont.) came off the bench to reach double figures with 10 points for the Saints.
St. Clair forced 18 turnovers and were rewarded with 24 points while outscoring the Algonquin bench 28-8. The Saints scored 34 points in the paint but also hit nine triples in the contest.
Jade Lyons (Carp, Ont.) scored 13 points and added six rebounds along with a steal to earn Algonquin Player of the Game recognition in the loss while teammate Madison Robert (Orleans, Ont.) had a notable 12 rebounds to go with eight points. Algonquin will face Niagara in the bronze medal game at 5 p.m. on Thursday.
Source: St. Clair Saints