Saints heading to OCAA women’s basketball finals
The St. Clair College Saints will play for the gold medal at the OCAA women’s basketball championship.
St. Clair booked its spot in the final on Friday with a 71-51 win over the Oshawa Durham Lords in semifinal action in Kingston. With the win, the Saints are also assured a spot at the Canadian championship, which is set for March 14-16 in Quebec City.
The Saints came into the tournament ranked No. 7 in Ontario, but knocked off East Division-champion Ottawa Algonquin in quarter-final play on Thursday. That set up Friday’s match against No. 6 Durham, which had upset No. 2 Humber in quarter-final play. St. Clair jumped to a 14-2 lead to start Friday’s game and took advantage of 13 turnovers by the Lords in the first half and hit seven successful shots from three-point range, while building a 38-22 lead at the half and never looked back. Jana Kucera led the St. Clair offence with 23 points, while sister Logan Kucera added 17 points. Noor Bazzi came off the bench to score 16 points while Kim Moroun chipped in with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
St. Clair will claim its first medal since 2014 and will at least match the silver medal won in 2010 as the club seeks to match its only gold-medal performance in 2004.
GAGNIER SIGNS
Tecumseh’s Ryan Gagnier has signed a standard Ontario Hockey League player agreement with the Oshawa Generals.
The 16-year-old Gagnier was Oshawa’s third-round pick in the 2018 OHL Draft out of the Sun County Panthers minor midgets. A five-foot-11, 176-pound forward, Gagnier is playing this season with the Leamington Flyers and has 20 goals and 42 points in 47 regular-season games.
“We are very excited to get Ryan to commit to his OHL future with the Generals,” Oshawa general manager Roger Hunt said on the team’s website. “Ryan has done exactly what we asked of him this season. He’s gotten a lot of ice time (in Leamington) and furthered his development, so he will be OHLready and we will see him in a Generals jersey before the season ends.”
LANCERS VOLLEYBALL
University of Windsor Lancers men’s volleyball head coach James Gravelle has been named to Team Canada for the 2019 FISU Summer Universiade Games in Naples, Italy, along with athletic therapist Natalie Paladino. The event is set for July 3-14.
Gravelle has been named the team leader/assistant coach for the men’s volleyball team, while Paladino will serve as the athletic therapist with the same squad. This is Gravelle’s second trip to the Universiade as part of Team Canada. In 2017, he served as head coach with the men’s volleyball team in Taipei City, Chinese Taipei. Paladino is representing Canada for the third time in the last five years. In 2015, she worked with the men’s soccer team in Gwangju, South Korea and then was athletic therapist with the Canadian women’s hockey team in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 2017 when it brought home a silver medal.