Women’s Basketball Top Fanshawe for ¼ Final Berth

Windsor, ON – The St. Clair College Women's Basketball team continued their winning streak into the playoffs with a 60-56 victory over Fanshawe College (London) at the SportsPlex Wednesday night and will now host a ¼ final on Saturday against Durham College (Oshawa).  The winner of Saturday's game will advance to the OCAA Final Four Championship March 16-17 and with a St. Clair victory the Saints would play host as the West Division's top seed. 

The teams played tense in the early going and traded the lead a few times before St. Clair used an 11-2 run which resulted in a 23-16 lead for the Saints headed to the second quarter.  Fanshawe responded before the half with an 8-1 run and found themselves up 32-31 at the break.  St. Clair took control in the third with some long-range bombs (6 of 9) and led 53-44 entering the fourth.  The offense went cool for the Saints in the final frame as they were outscored 12-7.  But some key possessions on both ends of the floor allowed Saints' rookie forward Jessica Paolini (Hamilton, ON) to nail a pair of free throws to create the final cushion. 

Jana Kucera (Chatham, ON) hit five triples on her way to a game high 21 points and added 3 rebounds for St. Clair.  Shae-Lyn Murphy (Windsor, ON/Holy Names) had three from beyond the arc scoring 12 points for the Saints to go with 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 5 steals.  Bre'Aira Burton (Saginaw, MI) reached double figures for St. Clair with 10 points while Paolini pulled down a team high 8 rebounds and swatted away a blocked shot to go along with her 8 points critical points.

Fanshawe shot an overall better percentage from the field, but St. Clair converted 12 attempts from 3-point land which was the major difference in the game.  The Saints were badly outrebounded (52-34) and gave up 30 points in the paint but created extra shot opportunities by forcing 20 Fanshawe turnovers. 

Mackenzie Van Dyk (Parkhill, ON) scored 14 points for Fanshawe in the loss but added 10 rebounds while teammate Micaela Howard (London, ON) cleaned up the glass for 16 rebounds to go with 8 points. 

The St. Clair Women tip their OCAA ¼ final playoff game with Durham at 1:00pm on Saturday at the SportsPlex.