Saints dominate over Royals

By Justin Prince

The St. Clair College Saints women’s basketball team won their third game of the season 71-59 over the Redeemer University-College Royals Nov. 2.

The Royals started off the game at the St. Clair College gym with an 11-3 run in the first six minutes of the game.  The Saints offense couldn’t make any shots for much of the quarter, missing 17 of their first 25 shots.

Royals starter Aycha Hamaoui led the Royals offensively in the first quarter with seven points along with two rebounds.  The Royals shot 46 per cent in the quarter compared to just 23 per cent by the Saints.

The Saints offence came alive in the second quarter after going on an 8-2 run with two three-pointers.  Kendyl Rizea scored eight points in the quarter to help give the Saints their first lead of the game with two minutes remaining in the half.

Saints head coach Andy Kiss said he wasn’t happy with his team’s defence in the first half.

“I thought defensively we were not containing the ball well,” said Kiss.  “We talked about it at halftime.”

Both the Saints and Royals offences went back and forth in the third quarter thanks to each team’s stars.  Hamaoui scored 13 of the Royals’ 17 points in the quarter while the Saints were led by Kendyl and her sister Kelly Rizea, who combined for 11 points.  The Saints also made three, three-pointers while adding another three points from the free-throw line.

As the fourth quarter started, both Kelly and Kendyl cooled off for the Saints.  Jessica Gordon and Shannon Kennedy took control of their offence, scoring eight and seven points respectively in the fourth.  Gordon would finish with a double-double with 13 points and 15 rebounds while Kennedy had 10 points and seven rebounds.

“I don’t know what came upon me.  It just kind of happened,” said Kennedy.  “I like helping my team out and working through things like that, especially after only having two points (in the first three quarters.)”

Kennedy said her team hopes to work through its issues as the season progresses.

“As we’re looking at it, there are two halves to the season.  We’re trying to get through this first half with only the one loss,” said Kennedy.  “Our goal is two losses and maybe we’ll be in the nationals in the end.”

The Royals shot nine of 18 from the free-throw line in the second half and also had some struggles getting rebounds.  The Saints had a 24 shot advantage and a plus 13 rebound advantage to win the game by 12.

Kiss said the third quarter for the Saints was similar to the first half, but was happy with his team’s fourth quarter performance.

“It really was a gut-check game, a test of their character and they shined with flying colours in the fourth quarter,” said Kiss.  “We found some energy within.  We were getting stops and offensively we were finding the right shot for our offense, whether it was inside or a perimeter look.”