Men’s Basketball Endure for Tight Win

Windsor, ON – The St. Clair College Men's Basketball team pulled out a tight 88-84 win over Niagara College (Welland) on Saturday night at the SportsPlex to remain undefeated just a few games into their OCAA West Division regular season.

Even with some injured players sitting out the contest the Saints were able to start strong and held a 27-19 lead after the opening quarter.  Some more hot shooting in the second and it looked like St. Clair was going to run away with the game after they entered the halftime locker room up 52-36.  But Niagara didn't go quietly and held the Saints to just 25% shooting in the third frame and erased a 20-pont deficit.  Early in the final period Niagara moved ahead and led 78-72 with 6:40 to play.  The game got very scrappy down the stretch and outside shooting went cold on both sides.  St. Clair used a 12-point run to regain the lead and some strong free throw shooting in the final minutes allowed them to outlast the visitors. 

The Saints didn't separate much statistically but were a little more opportunistic scoring 21 points off 19 Niagara turnovers and were able to take advantage of their 33 attempts at the free throw line to make 79% overall including 89% in the fourth quarter.  Niagara obliterated St. Clair in second chance points (36-9) and bench scoring (37-13) but only managed to shoot 35% from the field including 22% from distance so their additional 23 shot attempts didn't turn the tide. 

St. Clair's Shakael Pryce (Pickering, ON) did much of his damage from the charity stripe making 14-of-15 to finish with a game-high 28 points to go with 4 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals.  4^th year guard Jesiah Deerr (Whitby, ON) notched 24 points and 7 rebounds for the Saints with teammate Miles Hall (Toronto, ON) scoring 13 points off the bench.  Terence Williams (Windsor, ON) chipped in with 12 points for St. Clair but registered a double-double grabbing 13 rebounds while Hanani Ujullu (Kitchener, ON) had 11 rebounds and 3 blocks to go with 7 points. 

Niagara's Delroy Grandison (Nassau, Bahamas), Reggie Williams (Toronto, ON) and Kenneth Reckley Jr. (Nassau, Bahamas) each scored 13 points in the loss. 

St. Clair will host Canadore College (North Bay) on Nov. 12^th in their next regular season game which tips at 2:00pm.