Men’s Basketball Escape Sheridan with Win

Brampton, ON – The St. Clair College Men's Basketball team salvaged their GTA weekend road trip with a hard fought 81-78 win over Sheridan College at their David Campus Gymnasium in Brampton Sunday afternoon.  After splitting the difficult Toronto swing the Saints (9-1) now sit 2^nd in the OCAA's West Division distancing themselves from 3^rd Place Sheridan (7-3).

In the relatively low scoring affair St. Clair was able to move ahead 17-14 after the first quarter but Sheridan was able to keep the contest close and were in front by a possession at times during the second quarter.  The Saints kept the pressure on using a 9-2 run that sent them into the halftime locker room up 37-32.  St. Clair created some breathing room in the third quarter with a 10-point cushion with under four minutes to go in the frame.  Sheridan battled back and were only down 60-55 entering the fourth which set the stage for a very competitive stretch run as the teams shared the lead several times.  The Saints erased a 3-point deficit with a few minutes to go on a pair of triples on consecutive possessions. St. Clair made enough free throws in the final minute but still had to defend against a game-tying 3-point attempt by Sheridan was time expired which fell off the mark preventing overtime.

The Saints dominated the paint with 44 points around the basket shooting 40% overall in the contest while Sheridan made a living from the line converting 26-of-33 (78.8%) from the charity stripe.  Sheridan also forced 21 St. Clair turnovers and generated 20 points in response while the Saints overcame a 31-15 shortfall in bench production. Neither team shot particularly well from distance and the teams only combined for 11 triples in the game. 

All five St. Clair starters reached double digits led by Mazin Tiea (Windsor, ON/Kennedy) who had another monster outing scoring a game high 18 points to go with 17 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.  Jacob Masters (Toronto, ON) had 14 points and 4 rebounds with Amari Frye (Ypsilanti, MI) equaling his scoring average at 13 points while adding 5 assists for the Saints.  Kyle Brown-Fazekas (Windsor, ON/Kennedy) and Darnelle Peddie (Pickering, ON) chipped in with 11 and 10 points respectively to round out the St. Clair top scorers.    

The Saints are not in action again until January 3-4 when they will be participating in the George Brown College exhibition tournament in Toronto.  They resume their regular season schedule January 11-12 when they host Sheridan and Humber on consecutive days.