The Humber women's basketball team defeated the Redeemer Royals 85-61 at the Hawks nest on Feb. 4.
The win improves the Hawks to 12-2, keeping them second in the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) west standings. The Royals drop to 3-11, holding them at eighth in the standings.
Before the start of the game, there was a special celebration for Humber’s graduating players. Third-year small forward Beverly Omere and fourth-year shooting guard Marley Bonnick were honoured for their time spent with the Hawks.
Omere, a sport management student, is in her third season as a Hawk. Bonnick has also played three seasons and is in the behavioural science program. Their time as Hawks has been very valuable with both having their second-best season statistically.
Humber was coming into the match against Redeemer with a six-game winning streak.
Hawks head coach Ceejay Nofuente said she wants her team to stay hot as the playoffs are just around the corner.
“Just continue to work on ourselves, our defensive intensity, and how we translate to offence,” she said. “We treat every opponent like they’re going to give us their best game, so we just continue to work on defence and let that translate to our offence.”
Redeemer Royals head coach Jesse VanHouwelingen said his team needed to get off to a quick start and focus on getting the win.
“We got to handle the pressure and not turn the ball over. We need to slow them down in transition and what we need to do is we need to execute our offence,” he said. “We have to finish around the rim, and we get the free throw line a decent amount, so we got to shoot well from the free throw line, and we got to limit our mistakes.”
The game started with Redeemer taking a 1-0 lead after forward Talia Vreugdenhil split her free throws. The Hawks followed with a three-pointer from guard Marian Martin.
Humber had the lead for the rest of the first quarter, finishing 27-17. In the second, the Royals got within four points and had coaches on the Humber bench yelling for more intensity.
The half ended back in the Hawks' favour, up 43-33.
Humber came out strong and built a lead of over 20. During the fourth quarter, they were in cruise control and left with the win thanks to strong defence and forced turnovers leading to points.
Humber fourth-year power forward, Tsinat Geremew was a big part of the win and finished with the most points with 17. She said she was pleased with the team’s performance.
“A home victory means a lot to us, especially on senior night. Showing up for our seniors and just play our game on our home court is expected for us and I’m glad we could execute,” she said.
Regarding the lack of intensity before halftime, the message was to regroup and find their identity as a defensive team, she said.
“I think we did a good job moving the ball and breaking the press offensively, we really needed to improve on our defence and not bail them out with fouls,” she said. “We just need to keep up the good work on improving our defence tendencies and continue to execute on offence. We have come a long way as a team, and I am extremely proud of the progress we have made.”
