The injury ravaged Niagara College Men's Basketball Program (6-4) split a pair of games this weekend. Friday November 30th saw the Knights lose 101-75 on the road to the 8-1 Fanshawe Falcons, before defeating the St. Clair Saints 81-60 on Sunday December 2nd at the Welland campus athletic centre.
Niagara is currently missing starting guard Jimmy Bilenga, and physical starting forward Lawrence McNeil.
The depleted Knights travelled to London to face 8-1 Fanshawe on Friday, and the Falcons shot an incredible 58% in the first half. The 59-32 half-time lead for Fanshwe proved too big a margin for the Knights to recover. The Falcons cruised to a 26 point 101-75 victory led by six-foot-eight centre John Brutto who led all scorers with 24 points and 15 rebounds.
Knights' Head coach Steve Atkin felt that his team "was out rebounded, and turned the ball over too many times to compete against a strong team like Fanshawe."
Sunday, December 2nd saw the Knights play a much better game against the 3-7 St. Clair Saints.
The Knights led from the opening tip-off, and Coach Atkin commented that his team was "happy to get the win and finish 2012 league play with a victory."
Coach Atkin attributed the stronger effort against St. Clair to better "rebounding and ball control."
In the victory, the Knights were quarterbacked by first year point guard Aiden Alize-Minty. The five-foot-ten Midland, Ontario native "really controlled the tempo, while playing great defensively for 36 minutes" said Coach Atkin.
Offensively a balanced attack was employed by the Knights as all five starters finished the game in double-digit scoring. Leading the way for Niagara was second year guard Ashton Stephenson. The Law and Security student finished the game with a team high 18 points.
The victory was not all good news for the Knights as second year guard Marako Lundy was injured late in the fourth quarter attempting to grab a rebound.
The Knights will close out 2012 with a December 6th exhibition game against Genesee Community College before participating in the annual Sheridan College Bruins Tournament on December 28th.
