January 27th, 2020…WELLAND – The men's basketball team faced a tough weekend at home against the Lambton Lions (6-8) Saturday and the St. Clair Saints (11-3) on Sunday afternoon.
Both the Lions and the Knights were looking to snap their losing streaks, with the Knights finding themselves in a race for the final playoff spot in the OCAA West division.
It was a rough opening quarter for the Knights with Lambton outscoring Niagara 23-10 to take a commanding lead early. The Knights fought back in the second dropping 26 points to end the half trailing 46-36.
Niagara came out strong in the second half, eventually tying things up at 49 a-piece midway through the third.
Lambton, however, would never relinquish their lead, eventually going on to win 84-74.
Lequan Hylton led the Knights with 24 points, while Johnnie Richardson followed with 21.
Lambton's Jason Watts (5th year, Detroit, Mich.) led the Lions with 20 points while cruising to a career milestone of 100 career three- pointers, going 4-4 in the contest.
In Sunday afternoon's tilt against the first place Saints the Knights managed to give the top West division team a bit of a scare, ending the first quarter with a buzzer-beating three by Reese Radobenko to pull the Knights ahead 23-20 to start the second. Niagara still managed to hold off the Saints through the second and start the second half with a 41-32 lead.
Things unravelled for the Knights in the third, when the Saints slowly began to fight their way back in and take over the lead to head into the final quarter, 54-51.
St. Clair would ultimately go on to win 74-68.
With both losses this weekend, the Knights drop to 4-9 on the season and see their losing streak extend to three.
"We battled one of the top teams in the OCAA, and with a strong defensive effort remained in contention for a victory to the very end," said head coach Phil Mosely. "We need to find more effective ways to generate scoring, especially when we hold teams well below their scoring average. Our guys are committed to stay together in this process and look forward to their next opportunity to compete and grow as a team."
Niagara will face another tough test Thursday when they head to Humber (11-4) for a 6:00 P.M. tip-off, before returning home Saturday to face Fanshawe (9-5).
