Thrilling Win for St. Clair Men’s Basketball to Open Nationals

Etobicoke, ON – The St. Clair College Men's Basketball team came back from a 20-point deficit in the second half to win their opening game 93-92 over Dawson College (Montreal, QC) at the CCAA National Championship using a last second tip-in to secure the victory Friday afternoon in Etobicoke.  St. Clair advances to the National semi-final against top ranked Vancouver Island University (Nanaimo, BC) with tip time set for 6:00pm Saturday night. 

The Saints struggled out of the gate in opening quarter and trailed Dawson 29-16 heading to the second.  St. Clair righted the ship before half cutting the deficit to 46-39 at the intermission.  The Saints were able start the second half well and were within a basket before Dawson stretched their lead to 20 points (72-52) with just under three minutes to go in the third quarter.  St. Clair answered to close to within 74-66 entering the fourth quarter and continued that momentum into the next frame taking their first lead at the 7:53 mark.  The teams traded the lead several times down the stretch until Dawson went ahead 92-91 with 4.2 second left.  Dawson allowed an errant St. Clair 3-point attempt to be tipped in by Chad Vincent-Simon (Scarborough, ON) with under a second left that completed the scoring.  Dawson's next possession went astray as the Saints celebrated their first win at the National Championship tournament since 1980. 

Jesiah Deerr (Whitby, ON) was named St. Clair's Player of the Game who led four Saints in double figures with 19 points.  Vincent-Simon finished with 18 points and a near double-double with 9 rebounds for St. Clair while David Gomez Jr. (Pontiac, Michigan) netted 18 points and added 8 rebounds.  Darnelle Peddie (Pickering, ON) chipped in with 14 points for the Saints.    

St. Clair struggled from the field early in the game but were only narrowly outshot by Dawson overall in the game 46.8% to 45.1%.  Lost chances from the free throw line (14-25, 56%) also contributed to the large deficit but the Saints scored 25 points off 14 Dawson turnovers.  St. Clair also enjoyed a 27-4 advantage in bench scoring to go with a 21-11 difference in second chance points. 

Renoldo Robinson scored a game high 28 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in a losing cause for Dawson.