By: Luis Ramirez Ozejo
Photos by: Alejandro Rojas
One of the beautiful things about sports is how unpredictable it can sometimes be, and last Saturday was a great example of that. The Centennial women's basketball team fought until the very last seconds of their game against Seneca at King City Campus to get the squad's first win of the season (74-69) with great performances by Abigail Baptiste-Phillip and Ayoka DeSantos-Gutierrez.
It was a difficult start for the Colts as the Sting quickly grabbed the lead, demonstrating from the very beginning that they would be a difficult rival. As the minutes went by, Seneca stretched their lead, with Centennial fighting hard to keep themselves in the game, looking to secure every opportunity they had. However, they couldn't equalize or regain the lead during the first three-quarters of the game.
Despite this, the team would not give up, especially after cutting a large point difference more than once.
By the beginning of the last quarter, the Colts began to build up their momentum, with Ayoka and Abigail leading the squad. The Torontonians were in sync every time down the court creating chaos within Seneca's defence.
With 34 seconds remaining, Centennial grabbed the lead for the first time, with 69 points against 68.
The Sting tied the game almost immediately, but it was then when DeSantos-Gutierrez scored the first of her six attempts at a three-pointer with only 18.2 seconds on the clock. It was time to defend all costs to get the first win of the season, and that's exactly what the team did, even getting an extra chance for Ayoka to increase the lead in the process.
Even though the Colts guard got most of the attention by the end of the game, most of Centennial's endurance throughout the first three quarters must be credited to Baptiste-Phillip.
The recruit was the leading scorer in the game with 26, and she was one of the main responsible for the team still having a chance of winning at the very end. Abigail currently leads the OCAA in points per game (32) and rebounds per game (23.5).