The Niagara Knights women's basketball program (6-4, 5th OCAA West) dropped their opening game of 2017, falling 95-88 to the visiting Mohawk Mountaineers. The exciting back-and-forth affair saw 14 lead changes and showcased two of the top teams in the highly competitive OCAA West Division.
The Knights we paced offensively by third year shooting guard Mary Ingribelli (St. Catharines). The five-foot-nine Governor Simcoe graduate turned in her strongest game since returning from an ACL tear the saw her miss the entire 2015-16 season. Ingribelli finished with a season high 20 points.
Knights head coach Mike Beccaria felt the difference in the contest was Mohawks ability to get the free throw line. "We sent them to the free throw line tonight 41 times tonight and in a close game against a talented team, that is never helpful"
The Knights themselves shot a solid 76% from the charity stripe, however a few late game misses coupled with red hot field goal shooting by the Mountaineers saw Niagara's seven point lead with just over five minutes remaining erased. Mohawk outscored the Knights 29-19 in the final frame to secure the victory.
"It's never good to be on the short end of a score" continued Beccaria. "But we always look at our goals and re-evaluate after every game. We were subpar shooting the from three point range tonight, only 18%, and that has not been us thus far in league play."
Also turning in a strong game for Niagara was fourth year forward Courtney McPherson. The Welland native and Confederation graduate filled the stat sheet in her usual fashion, finishing with 18 points and 13 rebounds. The double-double performance was five-fooot-11 forward's sixth, in just 10 games in 2016-17.
Fellow Welland native and Jean Vanier alum Brooke-Lyn Murdoch also had a strong offensive outing, finishing with 19 points.
The Knights will look to get back into the win column when the team hosts the Redeemer Royals at 6:00pm on January 18th.
