By Caio Miari
After two straight road games, the Centennial Colts women's basketball team came back to Progress Campus with a 93-70 loss to the Algonquin Thunder Saturday afternoon.
The Colts' (1-3) second consecutive defeat was marked by a struggling third quarter, in which the home team was outscored 37-11 by the visitors.
Head coach Justin Bobb recognized the Thunder's (3-0) effort in his post-game availability.
"Credit to Algonquin; they did a great job coming out of halftime. Third quarter, they jumped all over us," said head coach Justin Bobb. "I think the turnovers were a huge difference in the game. They applied really good ball pressure and we weren't able to get to the pressure. They did an excellent job making their adjustments applying ball pressure on us and unfortunately we couldn't get through it."
Centennial started the contest with a strong 8-3 run, but Algonquin was able to quickly change the momentum of the action with an 11-0 first-quarter run.
The Thunder finished the first period leading by three (17-14), an advantage that apparently would be carried throughout the entire game as the second quarter was also marked by parity between both teams with the visitors up by five.
"(Our performance) was pretty good for two and a half quarters," Bobb added.
However, a disastrous third period changed the narrative for the Colts, giving the Thunder a 32-point lead to enter the fourth.
Despite the hard effort and outmatching Algonquin by 30-21 in the fourth period, Centennial was never able to make it a game again.
"Our mantra is always play the game, not the score. So regardless what was upon the score, we have to play hard and compete in every possession," Bobb said.
Cori Browne led Centennial in scoring with 17. She also contributed with two assists and one rebound.
Other Colts to reach double-figures were Janai Menzes and Christianna Crooks, with 16 points each. Crooks led her team with five rebounds, and the game in three-point shots made (four in seven attempts).
The Colts' bench scored just 15 points, while the Thunder put up 29.
For the visitors, Sierra Peck posted a game-high 24 points.
Averaging 23 points per game through two games this season, Michaela Branker scored 14 in her third contest of the year. In addition to Branker and Peck, two other players scored in double digits for Algonquin (Sylvie Strong with 17 and Arianna Gagnon with 14).
The Thunder finished 36-of-75 from the field (48%), outshooting the Colts' 21-of-60 (35%).
Inside the paint, Algonquin's 50 points demolished the Colts' 16.
The Colts will try to get back to the win column again on the road, this time against the Seneca Sting on November 12 at 6:00pm.