Women’s Basketball Hold Off Mohawk

Windsor, ON – The St. Clair College Women's Basketball team climbed back to .500 with an important 76-72 homecourt win over Mohawk College (Hamilton) Friday night at the SportsPlex.  The victory pulls the Saints back into contention in the OCAA's West Division with a 3-3 record and dropped Mohawk to 4-3. 

The teams played nearly even in the opening frame trading the lead several times before Mohawk went ahead 20-19 after the first quarter.  They continued the back-and-forth for most of the second quarter until the Saints used a 10-0 run to end the half up 40-31.  St. Clair was superb after the intermission and staked themselves to a 23-point lead with just over three minutes to play in the third.  However, Mohawk whittled away at the 20-point fourth quarter deficit until they were only down five points with under a minute to go in the game.  The Saints made enough free throws down the stretch and were able to hold off the charge in the final seconds to secure the win.

Mohawk controlled the paint (22-10) and the glass (30-24) while outshooting St. Clair overall from the field (46%-41%) in addition to gaining a 23-12 advantage in points off the bench.  But the Saints were better from long-range converting nearly 45% of their attempts on the way to 13 triples in the contest.  St. Clair also scored 25 points off 24 Mohawk turnovers.

Kaelyn Batten (LaSalle, ON/St. Thomas of Villanova) scored a game high 21 points to lead the Saints offensively and added 4 assists.  Shae-Lyn Murphy (Windsor, ON/Holy Names) filled the stat sheet with 16 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists for St. Clair while teammate Janae Smith (Warren, MI) was the other Saint in double figures with 14 points to go with 4 rebounds and 3 steals.

The Saints finish the weekend homestand on Saturday against Niagara College (Welland) which tips at 2:00pm.