ST. CLAIR 68, LAMBTON 65

SARNIA, Ont. - The St. Clair men's basketball team got back on the winning track with a 68-65 victory over Lambton College in Sarnia, Ont., on Friday night.

After starting the regular season with four straight wins, the Saints were on a six-game skid. But with Friday's victory St. Clair, they can feel confident they are in the post-season hunt after distancing themselves from Lambton (3-8) while making life difficult for Redeemer (5-7) and Mohawk (4-7). The Saints are currently sitting in a tie for fourth place with Fanshawe (5-6) who they will host next Friday at the SportsPlex.

A less than full St. Clair roster made for an interesting road match-up and uncharacteristically the teams played a low scoring affair. The Saints were game early taking a slight advantage but Lambton responded overtaking the lead at 19-13 after the opening quarter. Lambton extended its lead to 29-18 early in the second quarter but St. Clair put together a 17-4 run to close the half with a 35-33 lead.

The teams played fairly even the rest of the game with the Saints keeping the slim upper hand.  The difference down the stretch was three triples shared by St. Clair point guard Charles Baskin (Detroit, Mich.) and Juwan Lynch (Windsor, Ont./JL Forster). In all the Saints made nine 3-point baskets in the game and even though they were out-rebounded 51-44 they converted 30 Lambton turnovers into 24 points. St. Clair also shutout Lambton 16-0 in bench points.

Second-year swingman Lance Drummonds (Hamilton, Ont.) had one of his finest games of the season for St. Clair scoring 24 points while adding eight rebounds and four steals to go with two blocked shots. Baskin finished with 19 points and helped his fellow Saints with 7 assists and 5 steals. Anthony Limbombe (Windsor, Ont./St. Anne) had a solid game and although he only scored seven points his 13 rebounds were important in the tight game.

Lambton's Branden Padgett (Detroit, Mich.) scored a game-high 25 points in a losing effort.

Source: St. Clair College