The Humber Hawks Women’s basketball team claimed their 13th win of the season with a come-from-behind 62-51 win over the Niagara Knights Wednesday night.
The Hawks found themselves behind early, going into halftime down 35-26. The Knights top-ranked defence in the OCAA proved to be a problem. After some coaching adjustments from Head Coach Ajay Sharma, the Hawks came back with a dominant second half. They took the lead with 4:14 left in the third and didn’t look back, only allowing two points in the quarter.
When the Hawks were down, Sharma told his players to stick to their plan and to settle in and the rest will take care of itself.
Hawks Head Coach Ajay Sharma talks to his team in pregame huddle ahead of tight contest for Niagara. Photo credit: Humber Athletics
“We believed in our game plan and they were just good defensively and I told them that they’ve studied you, they know what you want to do, they’re getting to you,” he said.
“All you have to do now is get to a different level and execute. So we did that and that was the difference in the second half.”
Hawks guard Brittney English dribbles up the court after grabbing one of her game-high ten rebounds. Photo credit: Humber Athletics
The second-half defensive surge was led by guards Brittney English, who finished with ten rebounds and five steals, and Sarah Baptie, who made huge defensive stops and turned on her offensive game with nine second-half points.
Baptie recognized the Hawks have a target on their back and praised Niagara for playing a great game.
“I think we recognized in the second half that we needed to start calling each other out and that’s what we need to do if we want to make it to provincials and nationals we have to call each other out and then execute following that,” she said.
“We recognized we are in such a good position right now but that means every team we play will try and bring their best against us and Niagara did, they had a great first half so we really have to execute and hold ourselves accountable.”
Sarah Baptie plays huge defensive role along with 12 points in 28 minutes. Photo credit: Humber Athletics
Baptie could be a rising star for the Hawks program as she is in her second year with the program and already proving to be a difference maker as she averages the most blocks on the team and the second-highest minutes, assists and steals.
Fourth-year guard Kia Watt led the Hawks in points with 18 along with seven rebounds in 34 minutes of play. Watt felt the team’s offensive game in the second half was due to the team starting to share the ball more and spread out the court.
Hawks Guard Kia Watt leads third quarter comeback with game-high 18 points in 34 minutes of work. Photo credit: Humber Athletics
“I feel like as a team we started to share the ball more, first half it was more iso and quick shots and second half we were more pump fakes. drives and kicks with looking for the open man and luckily our teammates were hitting shots,” Watt said.
“We focus on being connected as a team, you can play one-on-one in basketball but a team wins a game at the end of the day.”
This Hawks team certainly works well as a unit as no singular player is a leader on the team for multiple scoring categories.
English added that the Hawks have a never say die attitude and they play hard till the final buzzer.
“You could be up 20 on us like them, they were up for most of the game and one little hiccup can make the whole story change so the game is truly never over till that final buzzer goes,” she said.
The win was Humber’s 17th straight over Niagara, who falls to 6-6 on the season. The Knights as a program have been surging as of late with two bronze medals in the last three seasons but have yet to win an OCAA title in over 50 years dating back to the 1969-70 season.
The Hawks look to continue their OCAA dominance with three games left in the season as they head to Sarnia to take on the Lambton Lions next Friday.