By Hayley McGoldrick
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL RECAP
Despite standout performances from Judy Ta, Cori Browne and Keyanna Hyatt, the Centennial Colts fell short on Saturday afternoon, 96-62, against the Lambton Lions during their crossover game at Lambton College.
The Colts (6-11) kept up with their opponent through the first twenty minutes of play in the game, but the Lions (12-7) dominated the second half, led by Cassidy Crowe and her 29-point performance.
The Lions’ bench also accounted for 24 points, pulling away each quarter while the Centennial bench only scored nine. Two of Lambton’s players also recorded double-doubles in their win.
Turnovers were the Colts’ downfall as their 34 turnovers would lead to 34 points for the Lions – more than the point differential in the loss.
“A lot of our passes were kind of telepathic, so they knew exactly where it was going to go because we looked exactly where we wanted to pass it – simple, pass fake and pass off would’ve made a difference,” said assistant coach Kadeja Hughes, post-game.
Leading through most of a back and forth first quarter, the Colts trailed the Lions by three going into the second 10 minutes of play.
Ta led the Colts in points in her final performance for Centennial, tallying an impressive 20 points, while Hyatt added 13 and Browne added 12 of her own.
Hyatt was just shy of a double-double as she added nine rebounds, while Browne and Christianna Crooks also leading the team defensively with seven rebounds respectively.
“We did the best that we could, our defence we strategized for and we implemented it well but literally the difference was the turnovers,” said Hughes.
The Colts were outscored 23-16 in the second quarter with Lambton leading by 10 going into the second half.
“The second half of the season we ended up splitting five and five, obviously didn’t end the way we wanted it to end,” Hughes said. “You can see within the team the players grew and our growth was really good, we saw the team develop and they trusted each other more."
A 12-0 run by Lambton less than three minutes into the third quarter forced the Colts to take a timeout down 22 points – a gap that the Lions continued to increase, taking a 27-point lead going into the final 10 minutes of play.
"If we were able to limit our turnovers, that would have been a completely different game.”
The Colts end their season with a 4-4 home schedule as well as winning 50 per cent of their home games in the 2020 half of the season.
MEN’S BASKETBALL RECAP
Carlo Pantaleon’s final game as a Centennial Colt saw him put up 22 points against the Redeemer Royals in a 97-71 loss on Saturday Night at Redeemer University.
Kyrin Henlin also added 17 points for the Colts, giving the duo of Pantaleon and Henlin 39 points, over half of Centennial’s final score.
Redeemer dominated the game from start to finish, pulling away by a margin as large as 35 points at times during the third and fourth quarter thanks to three different 15-point performances from Nick Green, Goran Veselinovic and Elijah Lostracco.
The Colts, down by 17 at the half, pushed back to keep up with the Royals, but ultimately keeping up with Reddemer’s 41 bench points was too much for Centennial.
Centennial’s defensive output was led by Walshak Yusef, with 10 rebounds and eight points, one basket shy of a double-double.
Despite being only one rebound behind Redeemer on the stat sheet, Centennial failed to convert those rebounds into baskets in the loss.
Turnovers also plagued the Colts as Redeemer managed 24 points off of them – almost the final deficit in the matchup.
An aggressive match saw Pantaleon shooting 100 per cent from the free throw line, as well as scoring 15 points off three-point attempts.
The final match of the Colts’ season saw both teams getting into bonus due to physicality but going 14 of 29 at the line compared to the Royal’s 21 of 24 made the final difference in the tough game.
Though the Colts end their season with a loss, their regular season percentage was .500 and tallied only two home losses. Road games became a pattern of struggle as seen in the matchup, but Centennial continued to fight even when down by unthinkable numbers.
Centennial had a four per cent better three-point made number than the Royals as well as points in the paint, which were key elements to keeping up with the fast pace of Redeemer.
The Centennial coaching staff was unavailable post-game to be reached for comment.