Women’s Basketball End Season After Narrow Loss

Belleville, ON – The St. Clair College Women's Basketball team (6-11) came up short Sunday afternoon narrowly losing a 61-60 crossover playoff game to Loyalist College in Belleville.

The Saints had a strong start resulting in a 20-15 lead after the first quarter using four triples to create a small cushion.  St. Clair was able to increase the gap to ten points (39-29) with under a minute to play in the half, but Loyalist closed well to trail by five at the intermission as the teams were an even 19-19 in the second quarter.  Scoring was at a premium in the third quarter with Loyalist inching to within a point (43-42) entering the fourth.  The Saints relinquished the lead a minute into the fourth as Loyalist used a raucous home crowd to build a 9-point (57-48) lead with under two minutes remaining.  St. Clair staged a furious comeback hitting a pair of triples and long 2-point basket that put the result in questions.  After a steal the Saints went to the free throw line with 27 seconds left with a chance to tie the game but only managed a split.  On the ensuing possession St. Clair held Loyalist scoreless but were thwarted late on a tie-up and could not create a shot attempt in the final second.

The Saints had fifteen more shot attempts than the home Lancers in the game but made just 30% from the field.  Although St. Clair sank 10 triples, they converted only 27% of their long ball efforts while Loyalist capitalized inside outscoring the Saints 28-10 in the paint.  Some St. Clair foul trouble led to several Loyalist trips to the free throw line where they made 20-of-26 (76.9%) while outrebounding the Saints 49-38. 

Shae-lyn Murphy (Windsor, ON/Holy Names) scored a team-high 18 points in her final game for St. Clair and was a board short of a double-double after 9 rebounds to go with 5 assists.  Lily Collins (Windsor, ON/Holy Names) had four triples including two as part of the late comeback for the Saints finishing with 16 points and added 5 rebounds and 4 steals.  Kaelyn Batten (LaSalle, ON/St. Thomas of Villanova) chipped in with 10 points while recording 5 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals for St. Clair with teammate Quinn Maclsaac (Windsor, ON/FJ Brennan) sinking three deep shots in the opening quarter but concluded with 8 points after reaching the foul limit three minutes before the final horn.

This is the first time St. Clair has finished outside of the top eight OCAA teams since the 2012-13 season when they lost to Loyalist in the crossover round.