The Niagara College Knights Women's Basketball team had their 2011-2012 season come to an end on Saturday afternoon in a 55-49 loss to the Loyalist Lancers in an OCAA Championships qualifying game.
The Knights, who finished the regular season with 9-9 record and in 5th place in the OCAA West Region, had to go on the road to Belleville to face the 10-6 Lancers, who finished in 4th place in the OCAA East Region.
This was the second meeting between these two teams. Back on October 23 in an exhibition game in Belleville, the Lancers beat the Knights 65-60.
Like most of the losses by the Knights this season, this was another case of not being able to hold a lead going into the final quarter.
The Knights led 18-13 after the first 10 minutes, and 26-23 at half-time. In the third quarter, they were able to extend their lead to 40-34. But, the fourth quarter belonged to the Lancers as their offense came alive and their defense forced turnovers. Dianne Bouder (Cannifton, ON) would hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Lancers a lead that they would not relinquish. Loyalist would end up outscoring Niagara 21-9 in the final quarter.
First-year forward Kaitlyn McPherson (Welland, ON) had a game-high 16 points for Niagara.
Meanwhile, Bouder and Haley Sisler (Belleville, ON) each had 12 points for Loyalist. Amber Burton (Mississuga, ON) also reached double-digits in scoring for the Lancers with 10 points.
"Our girls played hard," said head coach Ron Lemon. "You have to give the Lancers a lot of credit for how they played in this game, especially the fourth quarter."
Niagara went into the game riding a two game winning streak, while Loyalist had won three straight. At home, the Lancers were 5-3 in the regular season, while the Knights sported a 3-6 road record.
With the win, the Lancers advance to the OCAA Championships that will be taking place from March 1 – 3 at Seneca College in Toronto.
With six first-year players on the roster this season, Coach Lemon feels he has a good nucleus of players to build on for next season.
