Kucera Sisters Power Saints To Season Opening Win
The St. Clair College Women’s Basketball team was eager to get back on the SportsPlex court Wednesday night and fashioned a gritty 67-63 win over Lambton College (Sarnia) to open their OCAA West Division schedule. Earlier in the week the Saints were ranked #4 Nationally in the first Canadian Collegiate poll of the season.
The Saints went ahead 11-4 quickly to start the contest on their way to a 15-10 lead after the first quarter. Lambton answered and overtook St. Clair 24-22 as part of a 14-7 run with the teams eventually settling for a 28-28 deadlock by halftime. The Saints put together their best quarter in the third outscoring Lambton 22-14 and earned an 8-point advantage (50-42) heading to the final frame. Lambton capitalized on some late St. Clair turnovers and were within a point (64-63) before the Saints salted the game away with a few free throws.
Saints’ 4th year guard Logan Kucera (Chatham, ON) led all scorers with 25 points and added 10 rebounds for the double-double to go with 4 steals. Rookie forward Grace Smrke (Sudbury, ON) came off the bench to score 11 points with Jana Kucera (Chatham, ON) also reaching double figures with 10 points for St. Clair in addition to 6 assists and 4 steals.
The game was mostly even statistically with St. Clair gaining an 18-9 advantage on the offensive glass that resulted in 17 second chance points.
Emily Van Hooft (Sarnia, ON) scored 16 points for Lambton in the loss to go with 9 rebounds.
The two teams meet up again in two days when St. Clair travels to face Lambton in Sarnia Friday night at 7:00pm.