With just over five minutes left in the game, the Centennial Colts were leading the Seneca Sting, 49-47, with the home team playing their hearts out in front of a packed crowd. Unfortunately, missed shots and free throws down the stretch proved to be costly.
Seneca (9-2) closed out the game on a 15-4 run as they beat the Colts (5-7), 62-53, for their third straight win. Despite outscoring them, 22-11, from the free throw line and 65-50 on the glass, Centennial were undone by an abysmal 20 per cent shooting from the field and the long ball (15-3 Seneca).
"The biggest learning (thing) for us is under the pressure of the fourth quarter, we've got to execute and finish plays," head coach Justin Bobb said.
Four of those triples came from the Sting's Taylor Allicock who led all players with 22 points.
"Allicock's a great scorer and she's pressure-tested in this league," Bobb said. "She did a great job getting to her spots and as a veteran player in our league, she knows where she needs to get to get her team an open shot."
Despite the low shooting percentage, however, the Colts limited Seneca to just 29.5 per cent shooting from the field and forced 19 turnovers. Mariam Konate led Centennial with 15 points and a game high three steals (tied with Karmealia Turner). Konate also frustrated Sting guard Sarah Givens for most of the game as she finished with 12 points, but on 15 shots.
"I just try to look for my teammates and run the plays to get other people open shots," Konate said.
"Mariam's growth is coming from her dedication and hard work she's putting in practice every night," Bobb said. "(She) did a great job of getting them out of their sets and did a really good job of denying her (Givens) the ball and not letting her get to her spots in the third quarter."
Yasmeen Smith had 13 points and a game high 22 rebounds while Judy Ta had 11 and Bethany Miller scored 10.
The first quarter saw the Colts and Sting battle it out but behind Brianna-mae Clough's six first quarter points, the Sting were up 15-14 after one.
A putback layup from Smith and a free throw from Michelle Beloso gave the Colts a 21-19 lead but the Sting scored 10 straight points to take an eight point lead before a pair of free throws from Smith. The OCAA's leading rebounder had a double-double at the half with 10 points and 12 rebounds but Centennial was down 33-27 at the half.
The third quarter may have arguably been Centennial's best quarter of the season. They started out making seven of their first eight free throws of the quarter (with a couple of Sting layups sandwiched in between) before Miller heated up, scoring six straight points to give the Colts a 40-37 lead, forcing Seneca to call timeout.
"I thought Beth did a really good job at our screen and rolls. She did a good job getting her defender into the screens well, she turned the corner with aggression and that led to good opportunities for us," Bobb said. "She did a really good job being patient and calm and then using her change of speed to get into good spots to get shots."
"She was a big part of that third quarter," Konate said. "When I went to the bench to get some rest, she came in and continued doing what she needed to do."
Despite only hitting two shots in total for the quarter, Centennial went to the charity stripe 17 times, making 13, as they carried a 44-42 lead heading into the final frame.
"We did get a lot of free throw opportunities in the third quarter," Bobb said. "Unfortunately, we weren't able to kind of capitalize on all of those but it's the way that we want to play; it's getting to the rim (and) it's getting the shots we want to get."
"I think our defense was good," Konate said. "In the third quarter, we limited the amount of shots that they got which gave us the opportunity to get some buckets (and free throws)."
Centennial held their two point lead for the first half of the fourth quarter before Seneca took the lead for good with a 10-0 run, capped off by Allicock's triple that banked off the glass, forcing Bobb to call a timeout.
"I felt like we fell short just because of execution," Konate said. "The plays were good but it's just the executing part that didn't work out well."
Ta hit a triple, Centennial's first of the game, and the home team had a shot to pull off an upset. But the young Colts missed five of their last six free throw attempts down the stretch; overall, they made just four field goals in the second half (10.8 per cent).
"This is a tough league to win in and every game is a fight and we can't make the excuse of having young guards so they've got to play through it," Bobb said. "Whether we're playing a veteran team like Seneca or a team like us that's got a lot of rookies, you've got to fight through it on every single possession. It's good learning for us."
Centennial does not play again until Friday Jan. 26 at 6:00pm when they host the Loyalist Lancers, a team that beat the Colts soundly, 75-58, on Jan. 12.
"The thing with Loyalist is we've got to play our hearts out. We let a team that we know that we can perform better beat us which we shouldn't have done," Konate said. "We didn't work hard that game; when we started to fall short, we gave up."
Konate says that a big key to slowing down Loyalist will be to stop OCAA leading scorer Jenni Thompson, who averages 22.1 ppg.
"We need to make sure she doesn't score; anybody else can score, just not her," Konate said. "She facilitates everything (for them)."