Kajan Thiruthanikasalam (Sports Writer, Colts Athletics)

SCARBOROUGH, ONT.- After falling to the Seneca Sting last Saturday, the Centennial Colts were looking to bounce back and avenge a road blowout loss against the Loyalist Lancers at the Athletic and Wellness Centre.

Although things got interesting late, the Colts got the job done.

The Colts (6-7) led wire-to-wire in their 58-52 victory over the Lancers (5-7) at the Athletic and Wellness Centre, surviving a late Loyalist comeback attempt.

"Every win in this league is a big win. Credit to Loyalist; they got off to a slow start but picked it up and I thought their press put some pressure on our guards to make quicker decisions than they were ready to make," Colts head coach Justin Bobb said. "We did not do a good job getting to our spots in the press break but overall, we did a really good job controlling possessions and getting the ball to the middle of the floor to try to attack the press."

OCAA leading scorer Jenni Thompson scored just five points, making one of her 17 shots. Katie Wiggins had 13 points, but on 15 points.

"Thompson and Wiggins are really good scorers and they know where to find their spots so our goal was to try to disrupt them getting into their sets," Bobb said. "I thought we did a really good job forcing them out of the comfortable spots that they like to score from."

Yasmeen Smith led Centennial with 17 points and a game high 15 rebounds on a efficient 61.5 per cent from the field. She also had team highs in blocks (two) and steals (two)

"I think this is the level that Yasmeen's capable of playing every night," Bobb said. "She struggles sometimes with her shooting percentage but tonight, she did a really good job with her energy and her energy led to her getting really good looks at the rim and converting on those opportunities."

Judy Ta had 13 points while Bethany Miller finished with a game high six assists. For Ta, this was her fifth straight game scoring in double figures.

"Judy's been really working on her game so credit to her for putting in the hours to be prepared for games like this. Her leadership on the court has been tremendous," Bobb said. "Yasmeen's definitely our best scorer but Judy's the best at creating a shot for herself or her teammate and it's showing up in the boxscore."

For Loyalist, Brianna Arichara finished with a game high 18 points and a game high eight steals, as the Lancers committed 20 steals overall.

"She had a great night. I think on the defensive end, she did a really good job on putting pressure on our ball handlers," Bobb said of Arichara.

But Bobb says that the Colts guards handled the pressure well in the second half.

"Our guards are good; they just need to be confident and use the skills that they have. I think at many times, when you have young players, they overthink possessions," Bobb said. "Mariam (Konate), Beth, Megan (Manalo), Kelly (Hunter); they did a really good job getting us into our sets and the possessions when they got us into our sets, we got good opportunities to score and get to the line."

Despite committing 27 turnovers and shooting 29.6 per cent from the field overall, Centennial won this game by limiting Loyalist to 23.4 per cent shooting and outrebounding them, 56-47.

"We did a really good job getting them out of their sets, forcing them to take shots they don't want to take," Bobb said. "Again, Thompson and Wiggins are great scorers in our league but if we can turn them into volume shooters, we give ourselves a good chance to win."

The Colts started off the game on a 13-4 run, forcing a Lancers timeout, and eventually went into the second quarter, up 19-6, as Smith had six points and seven rebounds in that quarter alone. In the second quarter, neither team scored until Wiggins hit a free throw three minutes in. Despite Loyalist cutting the lead to eight at one point, Centennial went into halftime, up double digits (29-17).

Smith had 10 points and nine rebounds at the half while Arichara had seven steals in the half alone.

Both teams then played to a tie (13-13) in the third quarter as Thompson hit a triple, her first and only field goal of the game, to bring Loyalist to within seven. But five straight points, capped off by a triple from Miller, had Centennial up 42-30 heading into the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter, both teams played even for most of the quarter as Centennial called a timeout, up 11 with three minutes left in the game. But Loyalist went on a 10-1 run, capped off by a three point play and triple from Arichara to cut the lead to 54-52 with 33.2 seconds left, forcing yet another Centennial timeout.

The Colts came up empty on their possession, giving the Lancers a chance to tie or take the lead. But Konate drew a massive charge on Thompson while Ta and Hunter made a pair of free throws each in the last seconds, sealing the victory.

UP NEXT: Centennial caps off its four game homestand on Tuesday Jan. 30, when they face the Georgian Grizzlies at 6:00 pm.