October 28, 2019... WELLAND - The Niagara College women's basketball team (0-3) suffered their third straight loss of the season in a 69-43 deficit to the Conestoga Condors (1-1) Saturday afternoon in Kitchener, Ont.
The Knights got off to a sluggish first quarter, trailing the Condors 23-4. The Condors continued to add on to their total in the second frame, leading 47-20 at the half. Niagara seemed to find their way through the third quarter, netting 14 points while only allowing Conestoga 14. The fourth quarter saw a better defensive effort from the Knights, holding the Condors to just eight points.
Rookie Jessyka Maliksi (1st year, Mississauga) and second year guard Alannah Yates (Hamilton) each contributed 11 points.
Veronica Geroge-Brown (1st year, Brampton) pulled down 12 rebounds (6 OREB, 6 DREB).
For first year head coach Chris Rao, called the loss frusterating, but knows they need to continue to work on better execution out of the gate.
"We didn't have a very good start," said Rao. "Hats off to Conestoga, they took advantage of our mistakes. We took too long to settle into the game and execute our plan. We played much better in the second half but it's going to be hard to win games if we continue to our ourselves in bad positions with bad starts."
The Knights will now look ahead to their home opening game against Sheridan (0-1) approaching Friday at 6:00 P.M. Friday night's home opener will also play host to the College's alumni event, that will welcome back former Knights for ReuKnighted, the first alumni reunion of its kind at Niagara College.
Things get started Friday night with an exclusive tailgate party beginning at 4:30 p.m. in The Core. The indoor tailgate will be followed by the men's and women's basketball home-opener games in NC's Athletics Centre. An after-party featuring entertainment will follow.
For more information on ReuKnighted, please visit niagaracollege.ca/alumnirelations/reuknighted.