St. Clair Men’s Basketball Claim West Riding 9-Game Win Streak

Welland, ON – The St. Clair College Men's Basketball team claimed the OCAA's West Division for the first time since the 2001-02 season after drubbing Niagara College in Welland this afternoon by a score of 96-59. The Saints (15-3) are currently ranked 10th in Canada and riding a 9-game winning streak as they await the other seven teams who need to qualify for the OCAA Provincial Championship in Windsor March 3-5. This is only the fourth outright division title for St. Clair in program history and 15 regular season wins is tied for 3rd most in their 55 years of play.

St. Clair built an early 19-15 lead after the opening quarter but slowly grew that spread to a 43-31 advantage by halftime. The Saints had their best showing in the third quarter outscoring the home team 33-12 and put the game out of reach. St. Clair continued to hold Niagara down the remainder of the contest, but they were able to spread around their minutes to the reserves where 11 of the 12 players dressed notched points on the scoresheet.

St. Clair shot 46% from the field including 10 makes from deep but kept Niagara under 30% overall in the game. The Saints outrebounded their opponent 54-34 while outscoring them 42-28 in the paint and 49-29 off the bench.

A balanced scoring attack for St. Clair saw Jalen Harmon (Ypsilanti, MI) top his team with just 14 points but was followed closely by teammate Tim Steward (Detroit, MI) who scored 13 points while adding 5 rebounds in a reserve role. Chad Vincent-Simon (Scarborough, ON) needed limited playing time and four attempts from beyond the arc to score his 12 points for the Saints. Shakael Pryce (Pickering, ON) scored 11 points for St. Clair and Terence Williams (Windsor, ON) chipped in with 10 points while adding 7 rebounds.

Kennan Larmand (Welland, ON) was the only Niagara player to reach double figures with 13 points in the loss.