Humber Women’s basketball star Nikki Ylagan credits the Hawks’ success this season to the team finally getting a chance to gel together.
COVID-19 shutdowns and injuries hindered the team from playing at peak performance at times. But that hasn’t stopped the Number 3 nationally ranked team from crushing their opposition.
And the women’s Hawks get a chance to test that March 9 as the playoffs begin against Seneca Sting at North campus. At their last regular season meeting, the Hawks beat the Sting 96-41.
“I think everyone is starting to know their roles even though we are a new team,” said Ylagan, a fifth-year guard who hit 11 triples and 37 points in the season’s closer against Loyalist Lancers on March 5 when she returned to the lineup with authority.
The Humber Hawks women’s basketball team has been a force to be reckoned with as they finish the season undefeated despite a COVID-19 scare taking out half of the team’s roster.
The COVID-19 absences included star Ylagan. In her absence, fifth-year centre Miea Campbell-Johnson led the way for the Hawks, who also hit career highs, including a 40-point and 34-rebound night in a blowout win over the St. Lawrence Surge on Feb. 26.
“I think we just have enough weapons on our team offensively that other teams have to scratch their heads and figure out how we are going to defend this team,” head coach Ajay Sharma said.
During the time without Ylagan, Campbell-Johnson picked up her game averaging 30 points and 29.5 rebounds along with winning two Humber Athlete of the Week awards. The depth of the team showed as second-year shooting guard Kia Watt also picked up her game, garnering an athlete award along while averaging 27 points and 6.5 assists in two games.
Watt agreed with her coach’s sentiments about team bonding.
“At the beginning of the season, we weren’t as close but as the season continued and progressed, we learned each other’s play styles and we just started getting better from there,” she said.
The season stoppage certainly left an impact on the league, Sharma said, as player conditioning has been a notable issue.
“We were figuring ourselves out,” he said. “Just with the restart and, to me, it looks like every team we play, including ourselves, has conditioning as a big issue.
“Players are just not in game shape with the shutdown that happened,” Sharma said. “We still have to focus on our conditioning and our sharpness and execution but really it always boils down to how well does your team execute,”
Ylagan emphasized the hard work that’s needed off the court to stay in shape during her time away from the team.
“Keeping your body healthy and eating the right foods, exercising a lot to maintain and get stronger in the off-season especially without a gym open,” she said. “I think doing stuff off the court is really a huge factor when it comes to coming off of such a long break and transitioning it onto the court.”
Having their big three back together for the playoffs makes them certainly a deadly team as they look ahead to hopefully winning an OCAA and national championship for the first time since 2018.
Humber students can catch the game at Humber North Campus at 6 p.m. or can watch the game on the Humber Sports Network.