The women’s varsity basketball team is in a situation where they can guarantee themselves a chance in the Ontario Colleges’ Athletic Association playoffs.

“The good thing is, it’s in our control,” said coach Kevin Duffy. “If we win Wednesday night against Humber, we’re in the playoffs. It doesn’t matter what anybody else does.”

The do-or-die games started a little early for the Mountaineers and the women have responded winning three of their last four games.

Failing to make the playoffs last season, this year’s group is looking to change the culture of women’s basketball at Mohawk.

“We’ve definitely worked hard and worked our ass off all summer and worked our ass off all season and it’s great that we’re in the playoffs,” said Mohawk guard Sylvia Mosca.

If Mohawk were to fail to beat Humber, the Mountaineers will need some help to secure their playoff spot. Right now Lambton, Niagara and Mohawk are tied with eight wins each. In order to finish ahead of Lambton, Mohawk would need the Lions to lose their remaining three games and would need to beat Humber. Mohawk will still advance if tied with Niagara as the Mountaineers hold the tie breaker, having beat the Knights twice in the regular season. However, if the Mountaineers lose to Humber and the Knights win their last game versus Lambton, the Mountaineers will narrowly miss out on this year’s post-season.

After hitting their first four field goals to start their home game against Redeemer on Feb. 16, Mohawk went cold from the floor and allowed the Royals beck in to the game, giving Redeemer extra possessions off offensive rebounds and failing to convert on their free-throw opportunities.

“(Redeemer’s) bigger than us overall and boxing out is definitely a weak link,” said Mosca.

Mosca said the rebounding was addressed at halftime and Duffy added that it was a matter of completing rotations in order to be in the place on the floor. Redeemer’s 27 second-chance points accounted for almost half of their 58 total points.

Mohawk would clean up their errors and outscore the Royals by 33 in the middle two quarters en route to an 81-58 win.

Early in the second quarter, Mosca was fouled and awarded four free throws after Esther Weima was given a technical foul for arguing with the official. Mosca went on to make all four of her foul shots, making up for her team’s poor free throw percentage in the first quarter.

“You can’t miss free shots that they give you,” she said. “It’s hard work getting to the basket and you need to capitalize by making free throws.”

Mohawk’s aggressive full-court defence led to a lot of the missed box out assignments underneath their own basket, but allowed a lot of easy baskets and extra possessions at the offensive end of the court.

“Coach said in the locker room ‘great defence creates offence’ and that’s exactly what we did,” said Mosca.

Mohawk took 21 more shots than the Royals. Rachelle Abella’s eight steals helped her score a game-high 32 points for the Mountaineers, going 13-for-25 from the floor.