ETOBICOKE, Ont. – The OCAA bronze medal was on the line Saturday afternoon with a belairdirect OCAA Women's Basketball Championship first round rematch pitting the St. Lawrence Vikings taking on the host Humber Hawks.
Humber had defeated the Vikings 66-54 in the first round, and would once again knock off the Vikings, winning 62-57 and capturing the 2013 OCAA women's basketball bronze medal.
"To win this game, in front of our fans, the feeling is beyond words right now," said Humber guard Aycha Hamaoui. "We never got rattled, even in the first when we were down 10 with their fans going nuts. We just stayed focused and paid attention to taking care of the ball and being extremely aggressive on defence."
Extreme aggression is exactly what Hamaoui would have to show, being assigned to guard the 2013 OCAA player of the year Laura Knox.
And aggression is what she gave.
Hamaoui held the league MVP to just nine points on 4-of-12 shooting. She accomplished this all the while scoring 12 points, as well as racking up five assists and three steals.
Knox was a force in other parts of the game, however, most noticeably on defence, grabbing 11 rebounds, five assists, four steals, and blocking three shots.
Player of the Game honours for Humber went to Natalie Hagopian who finished with 11 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals.
Player of the Game honours for St. Lawrence went to Jessica Cetoute who had a monster game with 21 points, 15 rebounds and two steals.
Humber got physical in the first quarter with a couple questionable hits on Knox, but the 2013 OCAA MVP was not deterred, as Knox recorded two blocked shots in the opening minutes of the game. Alyssa Rodrigues also recorded a basket and foul to put the Vikings up 8-4 in the first. Another two quick baskets, including a three by Jacklyn Rodgerson, made it 13-4 and forced Humber to call a timeout with just over three minutes to go in the first.
St. Lawrence forced multiple turnovers and left the Hawks frustrated much in the same way that Humber had frustrated the Vikings in their first meeting at this tournament. The Vikings led 17-7 at the end of one.
Humber responded in the second quarter, clawing back to within one to make it 19-18 on an Hamaoui three, forcing the Vikings to call a timeout at 5:35. Humber took its first lead of the game at the 3:53 mark with a fast break lay-up by Chioma Oriuwa, however, a Keisha Conway three at the buzzer gave St. Lawrence the lead 28-25 at the half.
Hamaoui led all players with nine points, two assists and two steals at the half.
Cetoute led the Vikings with eight points, five rebounds and two assists.
The third quarter was intense, with neither team conceding a lead bigger than three points in the first six minutes. The Vikings recorded five team fouls at 5:06 to enter the bonus. This would turn out to be pivotal as it resulted in Humber going 7-of-10 behind the charity stripe on fouls that would have otherwise been possessions had St. Lawrence not have been in the bonus. This, along with a buzzer beating three by Michelle Asare helped Humber establish a 48-40 lead going into the fourth.
Humber continued to hold off the St. Lawrence advances, matching every big shot with one of its own, and were still leading 55-50 with 4:50 to go in the game. But Humber commited five team fouls before St. Lawrence could even commit one, and the Hawks now found themselves in a predicament similar to the one their opponents were in a quarter earlier. Cetoute would hit two free throws to bring St. Lawrence within two but an Aleena Domingo lay-up restored the Humber lead at 57-53 with just over two minutes remaining.
Humber led 59-55 with one minute to go. Knox would hit a crucial jump shot for the Vikings with 45 seconds to go to make it 59-57, but two more Oriuwa free throws restored the Humber lead and secure the bronze medal for the Hawks.
Source: Humber College