Women’s Basketball in Sarnia for OCAA’s

Windsor, ON – The St. Clair College Women's Basketball team are travelling to Sarnia this weekend having qualified for the OCAA Provincial Championship Final Four which is being hosted by Lambton College at their Cestar Group Athletics and Fitness Complex.  The Saints are already in medal contention and with a pair of wins would claim the program's first title since 2004 and earn a trip to the CCAA National Championship March 13-16 at Lakeland College in Lloydminster, Alberta. 

St. Clair will face Algonquin College (Ottawa) in the semi-final on Saturday which tips at 7:30pm.  The teams have not met since the same stakes were on the line in 2022 when the Saints played host to the Final Four that season and defeated the Wolves on their way to a Silver Medal.  Algonquin has been nationally ranked most of the season and sit at #2 in the CCAA's latest poll while finishing atop the East Division with a perfect 14-0 record.  The Wolves have been the top-rated team in the OCAA since late November when St. Clair relinquished the spot.  Algonquin's path to the final four included a 62-46 win over Conestoga in the crossover game before outlasting Mohawk 66-58 in the quarterfinals.  The Wolves have the 6^th best offense in the province at 67.6ppg but held their East Division opponents to a league best 40.5ppg.

The Saints finished 2^nd in the West with a 13-3 record and are ranked 4^th in the OCAA having advanced to the quarterfinals after a 75-37 win over Durham in the crossover prior to topping George Brown 87-53 in the quarterfinals.  St. Clair sports the 3^rd best offense at 70.3ppg while holding their counterparts to the 5^th least number of points at 59.1 per game. 

5^th year transfer guard Kaitlyn Overeem (Brantford, ON) is St. Clair's floor leader and finished the regular season with a 20.9ppg average but was also 2^nd in OCAA assists at 5.3 per game while adding a team high 7.8 rebounds per contest.  The OCAA Scoring Champion and CCAA All-Canadian was also named a West Division First-Team All-Star.

St. Clair's Ania Buklarewicz (Mississauga, ON) won the OCAA Rookie of the Year Award after finishing 9^th in provincial 3-point makes (27) and had the 12^th best OCAA conversion rate at 31.7% as part of her 9.8ppg.  Shae-lyn Murphy (Windsor, ON/Holy Names) averaged 11.7ppg including the 7^th most triple makes in the OCAA (30) while adding 5.8rpg and 3.2apg.

Algonquin's 3^rd year 5'7" point guard Dasia McDonald (Nepean, ON) was 6^th in provincial scoring at 14.9ppg while shooting over 47% from the field (OCAA 5^th) and leading the league in steals (5.4 per game) to go with the 7^th best assist mark at 3.7 per contest.  As a result, McDonald was rewarded with the East Division Player of the Year Award and received the East's Defensive Player of the Year Award. 3^rd year 6'1" forward Libby Hirst (White Lake, ON) nearly averages a double-double at 10.5ppg and 9.5rpg for the Wolves while both players were selected as East Division Second-Team All-Stars. 

The OCAA Women'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           Niagara vs. Lambton                      5:00 PM
Championship Semi-Final #2           St. Clair vs. Algonquin                   7:30 PM        

Sunday, March 3^rd

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