Recap The Court

Jacob Smith

A double header of professional paid women’s basketball took over the Humber College North Campus gym on Sunday afternoon when Hoopqueens started its second season. Four teams of 10 Canadian players featuring some of the best of U SPORTS and the CCAA, put on a show for a passionate crowd and one word to describe it would be buzz.

Team 5-0, Team Lancers, Team Roadrunners and Team Sultans, comprised of elite players including U SPORTS Player of the Year Sarah Gates, RSEQ star Amaiquen Siciliano, Humber’s own Ceejay Nofuente and Kia Watt, Christina Morra, Cape Breton’s Kiyara Letlow and more. If you were to take the population of Canadian women’s basketball players, these truly were four all-star teams, and the vibe inside the gym was high level basketball and a sense of community building around these professional athletes getting their opportunity to shine.

The afternoon kicked off with Team 5-0, featuring Lauren Golding, Kiyara Letlow and Rachael Niles, taking on Hanna Hall, Julan McDonald, Miea Johnson and Team Sultans. With the energy high, both sides came out with a lot of pace to their game and neither team was able to pull far ahead of the other. A 33-30 half-time score in favour of Team Sultans was a result of runs being answered by runs, and that gap didn’t get much bigger, ending with a 58-50 win for Team Sultans. Barbara Johnson got player of the game honours for Team Sultans recording 15 points and 4 rebounds.

After a slow scoring start to the second game featuring Team Lancers and Team Roadrunners, both sides settled into their rhythm, and went to work. The back and forth between Emani Clough, Kia Watt, Ceejay Nofuente and Brittney English led the guard play with Sarah Gates taking centre stage for the victorious Team Roadrunners playing a mix of guard and forward. The player of the game in Gates secured 6 rebounds and 2 assists while scoring 20 points, and Waterloo Warriors own Summer Pahl got the go ahead basket during what was one of the longest final minutes of the game i’ve experienced. The Roadrunners defeated the Lancers 57-55.

It was week 1 of season 2 for Hoopqueens, but the energy in the gym was that of a league that has firmly set its foundations, and that is a great sign for the ecosystem of a professional women’s basketball league right here in Ontario.