Men’s Basketball Looking for Gold Repeat in Oshawa

Windsor, ON – The St. Clair College Men's Basketball team head to Oshawa this weekend for a chance to repeat as OCAA Provincial Championship Gold medalists with the Final Four being staged at Durham College's Campus Recreation and Wellness Centre.  The top two OCAA finishers earn the trip to the CCAA's, so the Saints only need to win Saturday night's semi-final game against George Brown College (Toronto) to punch their ticket to Sackville, New Brunswick for the national championship event being held March 13-16 at Mount Allison University.

Tip time is 7:30pm in Oshawa on Saturday and will be a rematch with George Brown from last year's Ontario final.  The Huskies finished 2^nd in the East Division after a 14-4 record while being most recently ranked 4^th in the province and currently sit at #10 in Canada.  They rank 8^th in OCAA offense at 86.3ppg and 4^th defensively giving up 75.6ppg.  George Brown overcome Lambton 91-77 in the crossover game and used a 101-90 win over Mohawk in the quarterfinals to advance to the championship.

The back-to-back West Division Champion Saints ran themselves to a 15-3 regular season record and are the #2 team in the province while remaining at #5 in this week's national poll.  St. Clair's playoff run included a 103-60 win over La Cité and then posted a 110-95 victory over Centennial last weekend.  The Saints will compete with a league leading 95.3 points per game along with the OCAA's 7^th best points against at 77.2 per game.

5^th year shooting guard Jesiah Deerr (Whitby, ON) will be counted on to provide veteran leadership for St. Clair after he was named a West Division Second-Team All-Star.  He currently ranks 8^th on the All-Time Saints career scoring list (1,621) and averaged 14.6ppg this past season to go with 5.2rpg while making the 7^th most triples (45) in the province.  Andrew Loyuk (Windsor, ON/Kennedy) was also selected to the West Division Second-Team All-Star squad and was named the OCAA Rookie of the Year after a season where he dished out the 4^th best OCAA assists average at 4.3 per game to go with 11.9ppg for the Saints.  Galdo Tutu (Windsor, ON) averages double figures for St. Clair at 10.1ppg and teammate Mazin Tiea (Windsor, ON/Kennedy) recorded 12.4ppg along with a team best 6.9rpg to go with a league best 2.0 blocks per game.

George Brown possesses the East Division Sixth Man of the Year in 5^th year 6'6" forward Jeremiah Brown (Scarborough, ON) who was also an East Division Second-Team All-Star after averaging 15.1ppg mainly off the bench this past season.  6'6" 4^th year forward Christian Tabiri (Toronto, ON) led the team in scoring (15.8ppg) and rebounding (7.8rpg) while being an East Division First Team All-Star selection.  3^rd year 6'3" guard Jacob Masters (Toronto, ON) was an East Division Second-Team All-Star and led the Huskies in assists at 3.4 per game to go with 12.5ppg. 

Host Durham faces Humber College (Etobicoke) in the other semi-final at 5:00pm on Saturday with medal play slated for Sunday. 

The OCAA Men's Basketball Championship games will be live streamed and available at www.ocaalive.com/en/channel/st-clair-college.65

See below the entire schedule for the weekend. 

Saturday, March 2^nd

Championship Semi-Final #1           Humber vs. Durham                     5:00 PM
Championship Semi-Final #2           George Brown vs. St. Clair            7:30 PM        

Sunday, March 3^rd

Championship Bronze Medal Game            2:30 PM
Championship Gold Medal Game                5:00 PM