HUMBER 66, SENECA 43

ETOBICOKE, Ont. – With a berth in the OCAA women's basketball bronze medal game against St. Lawrence on the line, the host Humber Hawks went up against the Seneca Sting.

And for host, they kept their hopes for an OCAA medal alive as they defeated the Sting by a final of 66-43.

Player of the Game honours for Humber went to Patricia Cole who finished with 14 points, five rebounds, one assist, and two steals

Player of the Game honours for Seneca went to Sharika Smith who finished with 12 points, four rebounds, two steals and two assists.

Seneca jumped out to an 8-4 lead halfway through the first, with Lauren Eggelstone leading the way for the Sting with four points.

The Hawks seemed to wake up near the end of the first, with Jordanna Mazzei hitting a corner three for Humber to make it 11-7 Seneca with 2:10 to go in the quarter. Brenda Carachure then recorded a block on the other end for the Hawks before running up the court to record a nice transition lay-up to cut the lead to two with a minute remaining. Seneca held a 11-9 lead going into the second.

Chenel Johnson tied the game for Humber at the start of the second, and a Marie Maranan three at 8:01 gave Humber its first lead of the game, 14-11. Humber began to pull away near the end of the quarter with another Mazzei three and Carachure foul and basket. She hit her free throw to make it 27-21 with a minute to go in the half. Humber held a 27-22 lead going into the half.

Chioma Oriuwa led the Hawks at the break with six points, five rebounds, one assist and one steal.

Eggelstone led the Sting at the half with eight points, seven rebounds, three assists and one steal.

Humber built its lead in the third making life very difficult for the Sting under the basket. Two Oriuwa free throws made  it 34-25 for the Hawks with less than four minutes remaining. Humber outscored the Sting 12-6 for the rest of the quarter and take a sizeable 47-31 lead going into the fourth.

Humber continued to maintain their double digit lead despite a quick 4-0 start from the Sting. Cole scored four points in the first half of the quarter and recorded a couple key rebounds that kept Humber's offence alive and time running off the clock.

"We really just focused on boxing out, we didn't do that very well in the first half and by doing it in the second we were able to put up much better shots and eventually pull away," said Cole.

Humber would out rebound Seneca 31-20 in the second half after being out rebounded 24-15 in the first.

Smith continued her solid game for the Sting, making two lay-ups and forcing a couple turnovers during the first half of the quarter. Humber led 62-39 with 3:20 to go, and would go on to shut down the Sting for the final two minutes.

Source: Humber College