St. Clair Men’s Basketball Heading to Nationals

Etobicoke, ON – The St. Clair College Men's Basketball team (10-2) qualified for the CCAA National Championship for the first time since 1980 after winning their OCAA semi-final 110-97 over Redeemer University (Ancaster) Wednesday night at Humber College (Etobicoke).  The Saints will face host Humber at 8:00pm on Thursday with a chance to win an OCAA Championship for the first time since 1981 and something they haven't accomplished since the league's inaugural season in 1967-68.  Humber will also play host to the National Championship on March 25-27 so the OCAA will sending a second representative which will be St. Clair regardless of Thursday's outcome. 

In Wednesday's win over Redeemer the Saints flew out ahead 31-17 after the first quarter and continued the pressure mounting a 60-36 advantage by halftime.  Redeemer didn't give up and won the second half 61-50 but could not overcome the deficit. 

If not for a slight faulter in the third quarter St. Clair's 46% overall shooting for the game could have run Redeemer out of the gym.  Redeemer scored 25 points off 18 uncharacteristic turnovers which kept them in the game.  But the Saints outscored their opponent 39-21 in points off the bench. 

St. Clair was led Chad Vincent-Simon (Scarborough, ON) who scored 25 points but recorded a double-double with 10 rebounds while adding 4 assists, 2 steals and a blocked shot.  Jesiah Deerr (Whitby, ON) came off the bench for his double-double that included 21 points and 12 rebounds while David Gomez Jr. (Pontiac, Michigan) had 18 points and 8 rebounds.  Miles Hall (Toronto, ON) had 16 points off the bench for St. Clair while Jalen Harmon (Ypsilanti, MI) chipped in with 12 points to go with 7 rebounds. 

Redeemer's Blake Anderson (Hamilton, ON) scored 25 points in a losing cause.