UNDERMANNED HAWKS KNOCKED OUT IN FIRST ROUND OF OCAA PLAYOFFS

UNDERMANNED HAWKS KNOCKED OUT IN FIRST ROUND OF OCAA PLAYOFFS

KINGSTON, ON: The Humber Hawks women's basketball team, defending CCAA National and OCAA Provincial champions, have seen their journey to challenge for another title fall by the wayside on Thursday afternoon at St. Lawrence College in Kingston.

Humber, who entered the game with an extremely short bench due to team imposed disciplinary action and an array of injuries to key players, dropped a 68-59 game to Durham Lords (13-5, 3rd East). The short bench ultimately was the undoing for the Hawks, as exhaustion settled in to a squad that gave their all on the afternoon.

The Hawks, ranked tenth in the nation, started strong and ran out to an eight point lead early and held on to a solid lead later into the second quarter. But, as the clock ran down in the second frame, Durham clawed all the way back to tie the game as the first half buzzer sounded.

The rest did not bring Humber any benefit, as they fell behind quickly with the lead blossoming for the Lords. The quarter ended with the Oshawa club holding an eight point lead.

The fourth quarter may have been the sloppiest of the game for both teams, but Humber still put themselves in a position to take a lead late. Even though they had chances, they could not draw even or take the lead.

Late in the game, it was a combination of turnovers and being forced to foul late that saw the score balloon to the final nine-point difference.

The minutes played on the final scoresheet was a true indicator of how the Hawks were pressed into an unenvious situation. Three players played over thirty minutes, led by Brittania Brown's longest outing of the year at 38 minutes. Laura Meadows was just second short of topping that mark, checking in at 29 plus minutes.

Brown led the Hawks with 14 points, while Miea Campbell-Johnson and Meadows kicked in with 13 each.

Humber will now head to the consolation round, and have a meeting with the Algonquin Thunder at 1:00 pm on Friday afternoon.