March 17, 2022…WINDSOR- The Niagara College Knights women's basketball team capped off a successful year with an Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) bronze medal, after defeating the Algonquin Wolves 67-52 at the OCAA Final Four Championship hosted by St. Clair College.
After coming off a heartbreaking loss to the eventual OCAA Champion Humber Hawks in the semi-final, the blue and white were determined to not go home empty handed when they tipped off against the Wolves Thursday night.
The Wolves, who finished second in the East Division (7-1), were unfortunately dealt a blow before arriving at the Championship when they had a number of COVID positive tests, which would eventually hit head coach Jamie McLean before the bronze match-up.
Niagara was off and running through the first quarter jumping out to an early lead to end the first quarter with a 17-6 lead over Algonquin.
The Wolves put up a bit of a fight in the second quarter to put up 16 points to the Knights 18, but Niagara would end the half with a decent 34-23 lead after 20 minutes.
Despite exhaustion setting in for Algonquin, the Wolves continued to compete for the final stretch with the Knights starting to pull away with a 55-36 lead at the end of the third.
The eventual bronze medalist cruised to a 67-52 win to finish the tumultuous 2021-2022 season.
Second year forward and OCAA West Division Defensive Player of the Year Terin Hultink led the Knights with 14 points and 12 rebounds earning her the Player of the Game. Hultink was also named to the Tournament All-Star team, finishing the two-game tournament with 22 points and 20 rebounds.
Jamira Rousseau and Taryn Mitchell also chipped in 11 points in Thursday's contest.
The bronze medal served as a nice send off for Niagara's five senior year players- Jessica Bosma, Mia Wang, Beth deBoer, Lysa Lowe, and Jessyka Maliksi.
Head coach Christopher Rao said his team was still disappointed by their semi-final loss the night before to the Hawks, but was extremely proud of the way they rose to the occasion come game time.
"Getting up for a bronze medal game cane be a difficult mental hurdle, but I really enjoyed our team's approach," said the 2022 OCAA Coach of the Year.
"They played hard for each other and made sure our seniors went out with a medal around their neck because that's what they deserve."
In just his second season, Rao managed to take the women's basketball program to new heights in what was anything but a traditional season. The loss to Humber will likely sting for a bit, but the potential for a gold is on the horizon for 2022-2023.
"We came to Windsor to compete for gold. We earned that opportunity and while we came up short on a championship, we still came home with a medal. We took big steps this year and I can't wait to take more moving forward."
