FANSHAWE 67, HUMBER 63

ETOBICOKE, Ont. – In the second semi-final to decide who will be facing the Algonquin Thunder for the OCAA gold medal, the Humber Hawks took on the Fanshawe Falcons at the Humber Nest on North Campus.

The Humber crowd was out in full force to cheer on their Hawks. Unfortunately for the home fans, Humber would come up short, losing 67-63 in what was the best game hands down so far in this belairdirect OCAA Women's Basketball Championship.

Fanshawe is also guaranteed a spot at nationals along with Algonquin, with the two finalists in Ontario earning an invite.

Player of the Game honours for Humber went to Aycha Hamaoui with 11 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Player of the Game honours for Fanshawe went to Natasha Amo with 22 points, eight rebounds, one assist and one block

Humber trailed early in the first, but after a Maria Maranan corner three the Hawks went up 13-8 with just over two minutes to go in the quarter. The Hawks would lead 15-11 going into the second.

Humber's lead would slowly evaporate in the second quarter until an Allison DeBlaire lay-up for Fanshawe tied the game 22-22 at the 3:52 mark.

Fanshawe then took the lead to make it 31-26 after a big three point play by Natasha Amo under the basket. Fanshawe looked to have all the momentum until Aleena Domingo grabbed a steal off of the Fanshawe guard. She would proceed to do a stutter step and lay-up at the halftime buzzer that would send the hapless Fanshawe guard to falling to the ground, and the Humber fans to their feet in excited disbelief at what they just saw. Fanshawe still had the lead at the half, 31-28.

Patricia Cole led the Hawks with 11 points and eight rebounds at the half. Amo led the Falcons with 10 points, four rebounds and one assist.

Humber started the second half in a big way with a 9-0 run capped by a Chioma Oriuwa rebound and lay-up under the basket. Fanshawe responded though, going on a 16-5 run of their own to tie the game 44-44 with a minute to go in the third. The Falcons free throw shooting would be the heart of the run, going 7-of-8 at the line in the third. Fanshawe ended the quarter with an inbound steal and lay-up by DeBlaire and led 46-44 going into the fourth.

Humber came back with a huge three lay-up and foul under the basket by Chenel Johnson. A rebound and lay-up off of the missed free throw by Brenda Carachure would put Humber up 52-48 with 8:05 to go. Once again though, the Falcons showed their resilience making an 8-0 run off of 4-for-4 shooting from the foul line to make it 56-52 with five minutes remaining in the game.

Humber tied it 63-63 at 1:01 after an electric exchange of points from both teams that had fans for both teams in an absolute frenzy.

It was cleared this game would right down to the wire.

Then, a Janine DeLeon three with 42 seconds remaining put Fanshawe up 66-63. Humber would turn over the ball on the next possession and be forced to foul as Samantha Highgate hit 1-of-2 free throws to make it a two-possession game with 18 seconds to go. This decided the game for the Falcons as they moved on to the gold medal game Saturday night versus Algonquin.

"We really just came out here and fought, we didn't get too high when we were up, didn't get too low when we were down and really just stuck to our way of playing basketball," said Amo on the win.

With the loss, Humber will now face Seneca in the bronze semi-final bracket. The match will be at 11 a.m.

Source: Humber College with files from OCAA Communications