February 24, 2022 - The Niagara Knights women's basketball team recorded their fifth consecutive win on Tuesday night, with a 78-69 win over the Redeemer Royals.
With the win, the Knights reman undefeated this 2022 season and find themselves atop the OCAA West Division standings, and ranked no. 14 in the CCAA National Rankings.
The Knights got off to a red hot start to open to first quarter going on a 6-0 run before the Royals came alive with three quick baskets from the 3-point arc. Redeemer would close the first quarter in the lead 22-19.
The second quarter saw a back and forth battle with both teams exchanging the lead before ending the second with the Knights trailing 39-33.
The Royals continued to lead the Knights through much of the third quarter that saw the Knights down by 13. The blue and white were not going down without a fight and quickly picked away at the Royals lead to eventually taking the lead with two minutes remaining.
The Knights managed to pull out the 78-69 win and keep their winning streak alive.
Happy to get the win, head coach Christopher Rao admitted it was not his team's finest performance.
"This game was definitely not our best performance," said Rao. "I give a lot of credit to Redeemer, they had their best players playing well and taking shots they wanted from the start and we didn't do a good job taking that away until much later in the game. However, I am proud in our group's resilience and toughness. Redeemers is a hard place to play and I don't think our team ever thought about losing that game, even when we didn't look great. Our defensive effort and offensive ball movement carried us thought at the end."
First-year Jamira Rousseau led with 18 points, followed up by Janee Harrison with 17.
The Knights will look to defend their perfect season at home this weekend against the St. Clair Saints -who also remain undefeated at 4-0- on Saturday at 1:00 pm and Lambton College (2-2) Sunday at 1:00 pm.
