TORONTO - The St. Clair College women's basketball team boarded the bus today for the OCAA provincial championship tournament hosted by Seneca College in North York being played Mar. 2-4. After a late schedule change the Saints like last year are the first game of the event taking on Humber College (Etobicoke) at 1 p.m. on Thursday. Humber is the defending OCAA and CCAA champions and the top-ranked team in the country owning a perfect 18-0 record this season.
The Lady Saints (12-6) finished in fifth place in the West Division and went on the road last weekend to defeat Durham College 66-63 in Oshawa to qualify for the OCAA final eight tournament. Saints all-time leading scorer Shannon Kennedy (Windsor, Ont./St. Joseph's) is making her fourth trip to the OCAA championship sporting an 18.5 points per game average (sixth OCAA) adding 8.4 rebounds per contest. Additional scoring will come from 5-foot-7 guard Aleah Marton (Amherstburg, Ont./General Amherst), 6-foot-1 forward Torrie Handsor (Wallaceburg, Ont.) or 6-foot-0 Nicole Tamm (Windsor, Ont./Holy Names) who all flirt with double digit scoring averages on the season for the Saints. St. Clair last won a medal in the 2013-14 season (bronze) and is in search of its first gold medal since the 2003-04 season.
The Hawks are led by fourth-year 5-foot-8 guard Ceejay Nofuente (Toronto) who scores 21.9 points per game while sitting 16th in the OCAA in rebounding at 7.7 per game and tops the province in assists at 6.9 per contest. Humber defeated St. Clair twice this season with scores of 91-63 (Nov. 27 in Etobicoke) and 78-46 (Feb. 18 in Windsor). The Saints were the last team to defeat Humber back in the 2014-15 season who are on two-year string of consecutive OCAA championships.
The OCAA championship banquet will be hosted at the Courtyard by Marriott in Markham on Thursday morning which will announce the league awards before the games tip-off that afternoon.
See below the tournament schedule which will conclude Saturday with the gold medal game slated for 5 p.m.
SCHEDULE
Thursday, March 2
1:00pm Game 1 - St. Clair vs. Humber
3:00pm Game 2 - Fanshawe vs. Algonquin
6:00pm Game 3 - Niagara vs. Seneca
8:00pm Game 4 - Durham vs. Mohawk
Friday, March 3
1:00pm Game 5 - Con. Semi 1 - Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2
3:00pm Game 6 - Con. Semi 2 - Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4
6:00pm Game 7 - Semi-final 1 - Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2
8:00pm Game 8 - Semi-final 2 - Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4
Saturday, March 4
12:00pm Game 9 - Consolation Final - Winner Con Semi 1 vs. Winner Con Semi 2
2:00pm Game 10 - Bronze Medal Game - Loser Semi-final 1 vs. Loser Semi-final 2
5:00pm Game 11 - Gold Medal Game - Winner Semi-final 1 vs. Winner Semi-final 2
Updates and information can be followed through the following links and social media tags.
Watch Live: http://www.senecasting.ca/varsity/webcast
OCAA Website: http://ocaa.com/championships/wbkl/2016-17/index
OCAA Twitter: @theocaa
OCAA Hashtag: #OCAAWBB
Seneca Sting Twitter: @SenecaSting
Seneca Sting Instagram: thesenecasting
Source: St. Clair College