The St. Clair College Men's Basketball team (19-3) outlasted Georgian College (Barrie) 100-86 to win bronze at the OCAA Championship in Etobicoke, Ont. Sunday afternoon.
This is the third provincial medal in the last four seasons for the Saints and their tenth OCAA medal in program history. Coincidentally, St. Clair defeated Georgian in 2006 for their last bronze medal, which is their fourth to date.
The Saints Men's Basketball team poses with bronze medals after defeating Georgian College at the OCAA Championships on March 2, 2024. (Saints Athletics)
St. Clair made five triples on their way to a 24-13 lead after the first quarter and forced Georgian into six turnovers while holding them to just five field goals. The Grizzlies played better in the second frame shooting 50 percent from the field but the Saints still managed to outdo them with a 53 per cent conversion rate and went into halftime up 50-35. Georgian also found themselves fighting the pace set by St. Clair who drew four Grizzlies into a pair of fouls each.
Ethan Reid-Massiah (Toronto, ON) led the Saints with 14 points off the bench in the first half.
St. Clair outdid Georgian 28-19 in the third quarter, attempting to put the game out of reach leading by as much as 27 points with a few minutes to play before the fourth. But the Grizzlies did not give in down the stretch, cutting the deficit to 12 points with about two minutes to play. However, the Saints were able to outlast Georgian to claim the podium finish.
St. Clair made 13 triples in the contest and got great bench production, outscoring Georgian 34-20 in the category.
Reid-Massiah finished with a game high 28 points including 14-of-17 at the foul line to earn Player of Game honours for St. Clair. Kyle Brown-Fazekas (Windsor, ON/Kennedy) scored 16 points while teammate Amari Frye (Ypsilanti, MI) netted 15 points to go with five assists for the Saints.
St. Clair's Mazin Tiea (Windsor, ON/Kennedy) was named a Championship All-Star after notching another double-double performance with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Jacob Masters (Toronto, ON) and Darnelle Peddie (Pickering, ON) played their final collegiate games for the Saints. Masters scored 13 points while Peddie dropped in eight points and pulled down nine rebounds for St. Clair.
The Saints narrowly missed out on the gold medal game, dropping an 85-80 decision to Durham the night before.
After the bronze medal game Sunday, Durham later took gold, defeating host Humber 67-61 in the championship final.
