The Niagara Knights women's basketball program finished off 2017 with a disappointing 75-66 loss to the Fanshawe Falcons (9-2, 3^rd OCAA West). The loss puts the Knights at 6-4 on the season and drops them to 5^th spot in the OCAA west division.

The Knights opened Wednesday night's affair strong, finishing the first quarter with a 22-17 lead. Unfortunaley for the Knights, the Falcons seemed to have an answer in the second quarter, finishing the half up 34-32.

The second half off the game seemed to follow suit, as the Knights seemed to have no answer for the tireless Falcons' attack. Fanshawe would go one to outscore the Knights in the both third and fourth quarters to seal the victory.

After the game, knights' head coach Mike Beccaria was disappointed in the result, but was happy with how his team performed overall heading into 2018. "We are half way through the marathon that is our basketball season. While it never good to lose a game, we're taking the position that we are in good shape going into the break overall. Having said that there are certainly things that as a team we need to figure out. The coaching staff is going to take some time and plot the direction that we need to go. I think it ultimately comes down to improving our fundamentals, particularly rebounding and defending."

Leading the Knights offensively was their 4^th year guard Mary Ingribelli. The St. Catharines native finished the game with a team-high 20 points and 6 rebounds. Joining Ingribelli with strong offensive performances were 5^th year guard Courtney Kilyk (Fonthill, Ont.) and 2^nd year guard Hope Brown (Monomills, Ont.) who finished the game with 15 points and 11 points respectively.

The Knights will look to rebound from their loss against Fanshawe when they open 2018 at home against the UTM Eagles (3-6, 9^th OCAA West) Friday, January 12^th.