Saints make school history with silver medal in men’s basketball at CCAA championship

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For the St. Clair Saints men’s basketball team, a place in school history will have to suffice.

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The Saints came up short in the gold-medal match at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association championship in Etobicoke in a 101-94 loss to the host Humber Hawks. Still, a silver medal marked a first-ever medal in the program’s history in a season that, at times, looked like it might not be played.

“What a ride,” Saints’ co-head coach Brendon Seguin said. “Crazy, crazy season, all condensed into two months, playing every weekend and sometimes three times a week and culminating Sunday and just came up short.

“Just the competitive nature of the team and the coaching staff, we wanted to win, especially losing to (Humber) in the provincial championship. We were right there, but sleeping on it, and starting to put it into perspective, it’s pretty crazy to think where we started three years ago and we were playing for a national title on (Sunday).”

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Humber has been St. Clair’s Achilles’ heel all season. The Hawks handed St. Clair its only regulation loss during the regular season, beat the Saints in the OCAA championship final and then in Sunday’s CCAA final.

“When you don’t lose a game all year, you can’t say they didn’t deserve it,” Seguin said.

Aside from an historic achievement for the school, the Saints also earned some much-deserved respect on a national level with the team’s run to the gold-medal game.

St. Clair was never ranked higher than No. 13 in the country. Still, the team not only made the tournament, but rallied from a 20-point deficit to beat No. 6 Dawson College from Montreal 93-92 to open the tournament on Friday. On Saturday, the Saints reached the final by beating the No. 1-ranked Vancouver Island University Mariners, who won the last national tournament, by a 109-90 count.

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“I think we finally put our name on the map,” Saints’ guard David Gomez Jr. said. “I think everyone knows who we are and won’t doubt us.”

Trailing by 17 points in the third quarter in Sunday’s final, the Saints cut the deficit to five points, but could get no closer.

“Yeah, the slow start probably did us in,” Seguin said. “We got it down to five and had a chance to make it a one-possession game, but couldn’t get there.”

Gomez Jr. finished with a game-high 37 points while Chad Vincent-Simon had 18 points and Jalen Harmon added 15 points.

“It still stings, but I’m just glad I was able to help lead my team to make history,” Gomez Jr. said. “It wasn’t for me or the team, but the fans, the city, the coaches and the program.”

Both Gomez Jr. and Vincent-Simon were named to the championship all-star team. The first recruit brought in by Seguin and co-head coach Matt Sykes three years ago, Gomez Jr. is the lone player set to graduate from the team’s roster.

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“He’ll be hard to replace,’ Seguin said of Gomez Jr. “He was the first recruit we brought in and I’m happy for him and that he could play for any title, but a provincial and a national in the same year and those 37 points, he almost willed us there. We’ll miss him. but we’re excited we bring the whole roster back and maybe add a piece or two.”

In Saturday’s semifinal, Gomez Jr. led the Saints with 30 points. Harmon finished with 24 points, Vincent-Simon added 21 points and 10 rebounds while Darnelle Peddie chipped in with 10 points.

“It was a very good experience and I’m glad I came out here,” said Gomez Jr., who finished as the tournament’s leading scorer with an average of 28 points per game. “I had a lot of great memories here.”

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