This past Wednesday, November 21st our UTM Eagles faced off against the Humber Hawks in an exciting game of basketball. Humber is currently second in the league, having only lost one game in the season thus far.
At the start of the first quarter, Humber won the toss where they were given two immediate chances to score but couldn’t sink either of the baskets. The game started off extremely fast-paced with both teams getting equal number of opportunities to score. Finally, after three minutes into the quarter, Humber broke the cycle with back-to-back two-pointers, making them ahead 4-0. Soon after this, Humber gets their third basket of the game making UTM now trail by 6. UTM’s star player, Jade Addai, was using her incredible speed to attack down the court, but couldn’t seem to bury it. With 1:30 left in the quarter, Victoria Silva finally gets UTM’s first basket of the game, but this was unfortunately followed by a Humber two-pointer, ending the quarter at a low 8-2 score.
Going into the second quarter, Humber unfortunately gets the first basket once again. However, Trisha Ann Vo was quick to match this with a basket of her own, leaving the score at 10-4. Viado gets the first three-pointer of the game which was then followed by a Humber three-pointer. The game was incredibly fast-paced with UTM working hard to equalize the scoreboard and Humber working just as hard to keep their lead. So many shots were taken from both ends, but both teams were struggling to sink a basket. Humber finally began scoring, leaving UTM to trail further and further behind. A foul on Addai led to her taking two free throws where, of course, in classic Addai fashion, she sinks both to make the score 24-11. Immediately following this, Addai steals the ball back in the UTM zone and speeds past the Humber defense to gain two more points for UTM. With the score starting to close up, an unfortunate foul on UTM led to Humber gaining two more points from free throws which was followed by another Humber basket. However, a foul on Vo leads to an and-1 where she sank a three and also scored her free throw. With seconds left on the clock, the Humber player scores a backwards layup, leaving UTM to trail 30-17 at the end of the half.
The third quarter began with an astounding amount of chances for UTM where Jiana Alnajjar finally sank one. However, Humber was quick to match this where they maintained their 13-point lead at 32-19. A couple fouls on UTM led to Humber running further away on the scoreboard. There was a ton of back and forth play, but Humber really ramped it up this quarter and were rarely missing baskets, unlike UTM who always seemed to miss. With Humber capitalizing on every opportunity, they were ahead by 22-points at 46-24. UTM was scoring, but for every UTM basket came two Humber baskets. UTM was working hard to catch up, but they were no match against Humber’s quick passing and textbook plays. The score wasn’t looking favourable for UTM at 50-32.
The start of the fourth quarter was not looking good for UTM with Humber gaining five points before UTM even got one. Addai and rookie, Pinar Kahraman, got back-to-back layups, but Humber was quick to put a stop to this with two baskets of their own. With the score 59-36, Eagles fans had just about given up on the game when an incredible play by Vo to Kahraman led to a two-pointer. And then Addai to Viado led to another layup immediately after. With some life added back onto the court, Kahraman nails another layup, closing the gap even further. With UTM on a scoring streak, Addai sinks another leaving the score at 55-44 before a timeout is called by Humber. With five minutes left in the game, the score slowly starts to tighten back up, sparking some hope back into Eagles fans. Although Humber broke the streak with a three-pointer, UTM was relentless and maintained their momentum as they clapped right back with a basket of their own. Viado began getting fancy with her dribbling and beat out the Humber players to get a two-pointer. Immediately following this, a steal leads to a UTM counter where Viado nails yet another three, pumping the crowd up even more. Despite the sheer effort the women put into the game, the score deficit was too big for UTM to catch up to. With Priyanka Mehla getting the last basket of the game, the score rested at 69-56.
The score truly did not reflect the performance of the UTM team. The women played with persistence and an incredible amount of determination. Honourable mentions go to Addai and Viado for keeping the score deficit as tight as possible and truly acting as UTM’s MVP’s of the game.
