Knights rebound to take bronze
A “roller-coaster of emotions” swept over the Niagara Knights after they opened the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) women’s basketball championship in Sarnia with a loss to Lambton in the semifinals.
While Saturday’s 65-50 setback — their third in three games against the Lions this season — denied the Knights a chance to play for the gold medal and their first OCAA title since 1970, they weren’t doomed to return home to Welland empty-handed. Niagara could still earn the bronze with a victory over the St. Clair Saints in the thirdplace final the following day.
Knights head coach Mike Rao, whose team tipped off 2023-24 with high expectations, conceded that rebounding from the loss to Lambton and preparing to face St. Clair, also for the third time, was “really difficult. We were thinking medal all year, we were hoping for a different colour. We had the roster to do it, we had the talent to do it. There is a roller-coaster of emotion and to get yourself mentally prepared is difficult from a player perspective and a coaching perspective.”
Facing the Saints in the battle for redemption motivated the Knights, who went on to win, 67-52.
“But they’re a division rival, they’re a team that we want to compete well against, and we want to show well against because, every time we play them, it’s a fight, it’s a battle,” Rao said. “I’m really glad we were able to bring our level to that game and play really well. It was a long weekend and I am glad we left with something.”
Rao, who took over the program in 2019 and guided Niagara to a bronze two years ago, said, “as disappointing as it is to be in a bronzemedal game, you don’t get into the bronze-medal game by accident.”
“We have to have sustained success throughout the year. Maybe you just come up against bad timing or bad luck or against a really good team in our case,” he said. “To bring a medal to this program and this school is still a special thing.”
The strength of this year’s team was defence.
“We guard like crazy. That was probably our best skill, and we were really tough and really resilient and I think we showed that with bounceback wins all over the place this year,” Rao said. “This weekend was no exception.”
Niagara is only losing three players from this year’s team: Emma Fraser, Taryn Mitchell and Molly Taylor.
“I think we have the foundations to compete at the highest level and I think our kids showed that this year and will continue to show that into the future,” Rao said.
Recruiting for the 2024-25 season is already underway and replacing Mitchell, from Port Colborne and Lakeshore Catholic, as well as Taylor, from Niagara Falls and A.N. Myer, will be difficult.
Mitchell was a two-time all-star and Taylor was integral to the team’s success the past two seasons. They also are the first student-athletes at the region’s community college to win two medals in women’s basketball since 1984.
“That hasn’t been done in a long time and I think it shows the amount of impact those two have had on this program and the success they helped bring,” Rao said.
Janee Harrison, from St. Catharines and Sir Winston Churchill, scored 14 points and picked up 20 rebounds. Griffin Lack-Shane had 12 points Destiny Osadebamwen 11 points, Taylor nine points and 12 rebounds, Lexxus Bell, from St. Catharines and Denis Morris, and Jamira Rousseau each scored eight points to lead Niagara in the bronze-medal game.