St. Clair Men’s Basketball Open Nationals with 108-93 Win over St. Mary’s

The St. Clair College Men’s Basketball team started their quest for a Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association National Championship with a 108-93 win over St. Mary’s University (Calgary) at the University of Calgary Jack Simpson Gymnasium Thursday afternoon.

St. Clair took an early 10-2 lead but watched the hometown Lightning start to get hot from outside which put them ahead 27-22 heading to the second quarter. An emphatic dunk by Chad Vincent-Simon (Scarborough, ON) put the Saints back in front with five minutes to go in the half. The teams played to a 50-50 deadlock by halftime as St. Mary’s continued to shoot well from distance. St. Clair started to exert their will defensively and exploded offensively in the third quarter resulting in an 84-66 cushion entering the final frame. St. Mary’s made only a slight inroad down the stretch as the Saints maintained a comfortable margin until the final horn.

Using good ball pressure St. Clair forced St. Mary’s into 26 turnovers which resulted in 34 points in response. After being outshot in the first half St. Clair made nearly 62% of their attempts from the field in the decisive third quarter. The teams finished with almost identical shooting rates overall in the game at just below 49%. Throughout the contest the Saints gradually worked the ball into the paint outpacing St. Mary’s 46-32 in points around the basket.

Chad Vincent-Simon was named St. Clair’s Player of the Game after scoring a game high 28 points on 10-of-15 shooting in addition to 7-of-8 from the charity stripe while adding 6 rebounds. Jalen Harmon (Ypsilanti, MI) also had a strong game for the Saints finishing with 24 points to go with 6 rebounds and 5 assists. St. Clair All-Canadian Shakael Pryce (Pickering, ON) scored 20 points while Glynn Willis-Paris (Detroit, MI) chipped in with 13 points off the bench.

Caleb Jipp (Calgary, AB) was the St. Mary’s Player of the Game Award recipient after scoring 22 points that included 5 triples.

The win advances the Saints to the national semi-final against Dawson College (Montreal, QC) which will tip at 6:00pm (MST) on Friday. The game is a rematch of last year’s national quarterfinal that ended 93-92 in favour of St. Clair thanks to some late game heroics. The teams met in early January at the Dawson College Tournament where the Saints prevailed 82-59. Dawson advanced to the semifinals with a 91-85 overtime win over Vancouver Island University Thursday afternoon.

CCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship	1	2	3	4		Total
St. Mary’s University Lightning	27	23	16	27		93
St. Clair College Saints ***	22	28	34	24		108