Men’s Basketball Falls in OCAA Semi-Final

Etobicoke, ON – The St. Clair College Men's Basketball team (18-3) came up short in their OCAA Championship semi-final dropping an 85-80 decision to Durham College (Oshawa) in Etobicoke Saturday night.  The Saints are now relegated to the Bronze Medal game on Sunday at 1:00pm against Georgian College (Barrie) who lost their semi-final 83-63 to host Humber Polytechnic.

The early stages saw Durham move in front and St. Clair responded for a short-lived lead.  The Lords used a 21-7 run in the middle section of the first quarter for a 26-14 advantage with two minutes before the second.  The Saints shrank the deficit to 29-22 to start the second with some strong bench play.  The teams played the remainder of the half nearly even as St. Clair attempted to overcome some early foul trouble that saw four players with two fouls each.  The Saints were fortunate to only be down 53-45 at halftime as Kyle Brown-Fazekas (Windsor, ON/Kennedy) scored 20 points to keep his team within striking distance. 

St. Clair held Durham to just 9 points in the third quarter and wrestled control back taking a 62-60 lead with under a minute left in the frame.  The teams were deadlocked 62-62 entering the fourth and the Saints made a triple to hold their largest and last lead of the game.  Durham pulled back in front and St. Clair could only get within a bucket in the final 30 seconds at 82-80.  A Lords' free throw and offensive rebound led to a layup that sealed the decision

The Saints were outshot 41% to 35% from the field and had 10 less attempts while only converting 6-of-27 (22%) from beyond the 3-point arc.  An uncharacteristic 18 St. Clair turnovers led to 22 Durham points. The Saints handily won the rebound war 50-38 including 20 offensive boards but their 17 second chance points was not enough to turn the tide.  

Brown-Fazekas finished with a game high 24 points and recorded a double-double with 10 rebounds earning Player of the Game honours for St. Clair.  Jacob Masters (Toronto, ON) scored 13 points for the Saints after recovering from early fouls while teammate Mazin Tiea (Windsor, ON/Kennedy) managed 11 points and 7 rebounds in reduced minutes but succumbed to the foul limit late in the contest.  Darnelle Peddie (Pickering, ON) almost secured a double-double with 9 points and 11 rebounds for St. Clair.  Amari Frye (Ypsilanti, MI) played close to 40 minutes in a fine effort that resulted in 12 rebounds, 8 assists and 6 points for the Saints. 

On Sunday St. Clair will look to secure their third provincial medal in the last four seasons against Georgian (18-3) who is trying to reach their first Men's Basketball podium in school history.  The Grizzlies placed 2^nd in the East Division and are ranked 4^th in the OCAA and 9^th in Canada.