Saints fall to tough Fanshawe in OCAA hoops

The St. Clair College Saints came up short in their quest for the OCAA women’s basketball gold medal on Saturday in Kingston. The lead changed 10 times as the Saints fell 78-72 to the London Fanshawe Falcons, who are ranked No. 1 in the country and have lost just a single game in 24 matches this season.

“I couldn’t be prouder of a group of athletes who played with tremendous heart, desire and resiliency,” Saints head coach Andy Kiss said. “Great battle between two evenly matched teams with 10 lead changes. In the end, Fanshawe’s depth and experience prevailed.”

Jana Kucera had 20 points to lead the Saints and was named to the tournament all-star team.

It is St. Clair’s first OCAA medal since 2014 and its best finish since winning silver in 2010. St. Clair’s only title at the event came in 2004, but Saturday’s second-place finish assured the team a spot at the Canadian championship, which is set for March 14-16 in Quebec City.

FLYERS REBOUND

After dropping the series opener at home, the Leamington Flyers made it back-to-back wins on Sunday with a 4-1 win over the Strathroy Rockets on Sunday in quarter-final play in the Western Conference of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League. Coupled with Saturday’s 4-3 overtime win in Strathroy, the top-seeded Flyers lead the bestof-seven series 2-1.

VIPERS ROLLING

The fifth-seeded LaSalle Vipers are on the brink of sweeping the fourth-seeded Sarnia Legionnaires.

LaSalle’s 5-2 win in Sarnia on Sunday gave the Vipers a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference quarter-final series in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League. LaSalle took Game 2 of the series by a 6-2 count at home on Saturday.

LANCERS VOLLEYBALL

The University of Windsor Lancers men’s volleyball team is headed to the OUA Final Four after an upset win on the road Saturday against the Ryerson Rams in Toronto.

Down 2-1 in sets, the Lancers rallied in the quarter-final match to win a five-set thriller over the Rams by scores of 25-20, 22-25, 22-25, 25-23 and 15-10.

The Lancers now advance to the Final Four, which is set for Friday and Saturday in Kingston, and will face McMaster, which is ranked No. 4 in the country, in the semifinals.

Pierce Johnson led the Lancers with 18 kills.

The Windsor women’s team saw its season come to an end with a quarter-final loss on the road to Ryerson. The Lancers dropped the match 3-0 by scores of 25-15, 25-17 and 25-10.