(London, Ontario) – On Tuesday evening, the Fanshawe Women's Basketball squad (1-1) dropped a close contest to the number eight nationally ranked St. Clair Saints (3-0) 57-51 at home.
Grace Shea (Caledonia, ON) got the Falcons off to a good start with a strong post move. The Saints regrouped and took an early lead with a pair of threes in transition. Fanshawe struggled to find their groove offensively, but a layup from rookie guard Renee Maat (Oakville, ON) kept the Birds within reach. At the end of the opening frame, the score was 17-11 for St. Clair.
The Falcons stepped up their defense in the second quarter, with third year center Mackenzie Van Dyk (Nairn, ON) getting her hand on the St. Clair drive attempts. Van Dyk recorded five blocks in the frame, and eight in the game to set a new Fanshawe Basketball single-game block record. Offensively, the Falcons got eight points from Alison Cotton (London, ON) to cut St. Clair's lead to 28-27 at half time.
The Falcons came out flying to start the third quarter, with back-to-back layups from Cotton and Van Dyk, then a jump shot from Shea to take a five point lead. Unfortunately, the lead would be short-lived, as the Saints quickly regrouped. The Falcons went cold for the remainder of the frame and found themselves down 45-37 heading into the fourth.
St. Clair continued their strong play in the final frame to go up 13 points with five minutes remaining. The Falcons showed their resiliency by stepping up their defense with Legacie Blackbird (Walpole Island) securing a pair of rebounds. Second year forward Jordan Braekevelt (Sarnia, ON) knocked down a jumper to start the home team's comeback. Micaela Howard (London, ON) then had an and-1 to get the Fanshawe bench on their feet. An offensive rebound from Braekevelt resulted in a pair of free throws from Van Dyk that had the Falcons within three points late in the game, however they could not complete the comeback. St. Clair would go on to win 57-51.
Cotton recorded an impressive 17 points and 16 rebounds, while Van Dyk added nine points, 14 rebounds and eight blocks. Van Dyk currently leads the OCAA in blocks, averaging six per game, and sits second in Fanshawe all-time career blocks with 50. As a team, the Falcons set a new single-game block record with 10. Cotton and Van Dyk both sit in the OCAA's top five in rebounding with 13.5 (3rd) and 13.0 (5th) per game respectively. Fanshawe will travel to Niagara (2-0) to face an undefeated Knights squad on Friday, February 18 at 6:00 p.m. The game can be streamed at www.fanshawefalcons.ca/watchlive.
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