Saints Basketball Team Advances to Quarter Finals for first time in 13 years

The St. Clair College Men’s Basketball team has qualified for the OCAA Provincial Championship Final 8 tournament for the first time since 2007. 

The Saints defeated La Cité Saturday night by a score of 91-88. Saints guard David Gomez Jr. led the team scoring 24 points after returning from his injury.

Matt Sykes is the co-head coach of the basketball team and he talked about what David’s return meant to his team.

“Just excitement,” said Sykes. “He’s our captain and we needed him and were excited to see him back and happy he could play.”

Sykes described what the win meant to St. Clair, him and his team.

“It’s huge for our program,” said Sykes. “When me and coach Seguin took over, we had a five year plan and it’s only our second year and we got there so it came a little quicker than we thought it would but the guys competed and they deserve this.”

 Saints guard Jesiah Deerr came off of the bench and was second in scoring with 23 points and five three pointers, and he described the importance of the win being at home for the first time in a long time.

“It was the first big win at the SportsPlex and the first time that a group like this is going to OCAAs to compete for a championship,” said Deerr. “We had our home crowd here, they were very loud, and it was very exciting. We’re looking forward to this weekend.” The Saints opened the SportsPlex in May of 2014. 

David Gomez Jr. was announced as the OCAA West Division 1st team All Star as he was in the top 10 in scoring and first in field goal percentage in Ontario.

The Saints finished the regular season with a record of 14-6 and will look to continue to feed off their momentum this Friday, March 6 on the road against Seneca College in the OCAA Quarter Finals.