The Fanshawe Falcons defeated the Algoma Thunderbirds 61-52 on Saturday night. The win improved the Falcons record to 15-2 and they are now in first place in the OCAA West Division.
Algoma played a tough zone defence and jumped out to a 7-1 lead. A 7-0 run by Fanshawe gave them a short lead, but the Thunderbirds were ahead 13-11 at the end of the first. Fanshawe's Janine DeLeon had nine first half points but her team trailed 25-24 at halftime.
Two quick baskets had Algoma up by five early in the third, but Samantha Highgate answered back quickly with two buckets of her own making it a one-point game once again. Full court pressure by the Falcons generated multiple turnovers and a 6-0 run giving them a 4 point lead after three quarters.
Entering the fourth down 46-42, the Thunderbirds scored five straight points to take the lead. With just under seven minutes to go, Algoma star Corina Bruni picked up her fourth foul, stalling the Thunderbirds offence. A bucket from Felicia Mazerolle with 1:42 to go had the Falcons up 55-52. She then knocked down 6-of-8 free throw attempts to put the game away.
Fanshawe head coach Matt White commented on the well-executed full court pressure by his team.
"Our team puts a lot of time into conditioning, we have since September so we try to execute full court man-to-man. But give a lot of credit to Algoma. They don't fade and they are as tough a team as we're going to see this year."
Mazerolle led the Falcons in scoring with 28 points. Laura Cooper had a double-double in the game for the Thunderbirds with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
The Falcons have now defeated every team in the OCAA West Division. The Falcons are undefeated in the second half of the season and ranked 15th in the country.
White is happy with how his team is playing but admits work still needs to be done. "There is still a lot that we have to work on. At times we weren't closing out properly and rebounding like we should, but it was nice to close out the game on the offensive end and get to the free throw line and knock down shots."
The win pushed the Falcons into first place with one game to go in the regular season. The Falcons host Sault College (0-16) Sunday at 1 p.m.