The St. Clair Saints defeated the St. Lawrence-Kingston Vikings on Friday afternoon to advance to the OCAA consolation final on Saturday. The Saints, who dropped a tight 81-90 decision on Thursday to the defending champion Humber Hawks, rebounded for a 87-69 victory over the Vikings.

The Saints, who are hosting the CCAA Women’s Basketball Championships later this month, will surely use the victory as a stepping stone towards nationals. They took an early 9 point lead over the Vikings after the first quarter, which they maintained through the halftime break. St. Clair drained 28 points in the third quarter to extend their lead. The final result was an 18 points victory, and a chance to compete in the consolation final.

Jaide Lyons, an OCAA First-Team All-Star, was tremendous for the Saints for the second straight day. She had a game high 23 points, while adding six rebounds and seven steals. Lyons received player of the game honours for her efforts. The Saints Sarah Bondy had 19 points, on the strength of five baskets from beyond arc. St. Clair had three other scorers reach double digits, with Nicole Tamm putting home 14 while Rachel Duic and Shannon Kennedy each added 11.

For St. Lawrence, Hayley Gourdier had 17 points. The crafty guard earned player of the game honours for the Vikings. Tyler Simon fell just short of a double-double with 10 points, nine rebounds, and four steals. Sammy Gourdier and Shian Noble each had 12 points to round out the Vikings double-digit scorers.

The Vikings loss brings and end to their season, while the Saints await the winner of the other consolation semi-final between the Niagara Knights and Lambton Lions. The consolation final go tip off at 2:00pm on Saturday. The action will be broadcast live at goknights.ca/watchlive