The Niagara College Knights Men's Basketball team will battle with the three-time defending OCAA Champions, the Humber College Hawks on Wednesday night for 1st place in the OCAA West Region.
The Knights Men's team has a record of 8-3, and are tied for 1st place with Humber, Fanshawe, and Algoma. The Knights are coming off a weekend split in their two games up in Sault Ste. Marie. On Saturday, they beat the Sault College Cougars 98-70 before dropping a 82-62 decision to the Algoma University Thunderbirds on Sunday. Despite the loss to the Thunderbirds, the Knights have won six of their last eight games and a perfect 4-0 at home.
Meanwhile, the Humber Hawks Men's team sport a record of 8-2 and come into Wednesday's game riding a seven game winning streak. Their two losses this year both came while on the road at Sheridan and Fanshawe.
This is the second meeting of the year between these two teams. The Hawks beat the Knights 80-50 back on December 2 at Humber College. Five-year guard Mike Dvorak (Barrie, ON) had a game-high 22 points including shooting 3-for-5 (60%) from behind the arc. First-year guard Alex Campbell (Brampton, ON) and second-year guard Jimmy Bilenga (Hamilton, ON) were the only Knights to reach double-digits in scoring with 13 and 10 points respectively. The Knights shot a dismal 16-for-66 (24%) from the field and 2-for-22 (9.1%) from 3-point land in the loss.
Alex Campbell has scored 172 points in 11 games (15.68 ppg) – good enough for 14th place in OCAA scoring, while Bilenga has pumped in 166 points in 11 games (15.1 ppg) and sits in 19th place amongst individual scoring leaders in the league.
Fourth-year forward Akeem Sween (Mississauga, ON) has 154 points in 10 games (15.4 ppg) for the Hawks – which puts him in 16th place in scoring in the OCAA.
Like the Women's Basketball team, the Knights men's team will have to protect the basketball in order to gain a series split this season and remain in first-place. Niagara is first in the OCAA in turnovers, averaging 14.6 turnovers per game.
"Humber are a very experienced team, with only two first-year players" said Assistant Coach Mike Hurley. "We will definitely have to limit our mistakes and shoot better than our last meeting with the Hawks in order to get the win," he added.
SPECIAL PRE-GAME PRESENTATION
The Niagara College Knights Men's Basketball team will be doing a special pre-game ceremony for fifth-year forward Jeremy Settimi (Hamilton, ON), who had his collegiate career shortened because of continuous knee injuries. His leadership and passion for the game did not go unnoticed at Niagara, and he will be sadly missed. We will be recognizing his contributions to our program with a short pre-game ceremony.
Admission proceeds from this game will be going to the Niagara College United Way Campaign.
Adults $5.00
Niagara College Students/Seniors $3.00
High School Students $2.00
Children 13 and Under Free
Knights Nation Members Free
Pre-Game Ceremony 7:45pm (Approximately)
Men's game time is 8pm.
