The St. Clair Saints Men's Basketball team is a perennial contender for OCAA supremacy, and the 2025-2026 season is no different.
St. Clair College is hosting the 2026 OCAA Final Four tournament on March 6 and 7, 2026, where the province's number one seeded Saints will tip off Friday night at the SportsPlex against the Mohawk Mountaineers at 7:30 p.m.
"We set as a goal at the start of the year to get to the Final Four, and now we're here," said co-head coach, Matt Sykes. "Our guys were really resilient down the home stretch of the season, and we faced a lot of adversity, and now they get rewarded with hosting, so it's a big deal."
The Saints punched their ticket to the final four after a thrilling 93-89 quarterfinal win over Seneca Polytechnic (North York) last Saturday.
The Saints split the season series against Mohawk and are preparing for a fast-paced game on Friday.
"It's kind of like the series tiebreaker. They're a good team, they're well coached, so we all must put the work in over the next couple of days," said coach Sykes. "We will bring our fast-paced, electric style. It's going to be a good game and something cool for the fans to come watch this weekend."
The winner of both Friday games, including a 5 p.m. tilt between Humber and Loyalist Colleges, will move onto the gold medal game on Saturday at 5 p.m. The losers of Friday's matchups will square off in the bronze medal game at 2:30.
"We're excited to host the OCAA Final Four this weekend at the SportsPlex at St. Clair College. We know, without a doubt, that fans will get to see some amazing basketball from the best athletes in the province," said Reid Innes, Director of Athletics and Recreation at St. Clair College. "The Saints are primed for a big weekend, and we want to see the bleachers packed to give us a true home-court advantage."
Player accolades from the OCAA
St. Clair College has three athletes and their co-head coaches winning awards from the OCAA heading into the playoffs.
In their seventh season as co-head Coaches, Brendon Seguin and Matt Sykes were named both the West Division and OCAA Coach of the Year.
Seguin and Sykes led the Saints to their third West Division regular season title in the past four years with a 15-3 record and have sat atop the OCAA rankings the past three weeks. St. Clair has been ranked nationally 10 weeks this season and currently stand fourth in the country as part of their recent four-week hold in the CCAA's top five.
St. Clair also earned the West Division's Best Defensive Team Award after holding their opponents to a league low 72.3 points per game and allowing just 36.2 per cent shooting from the floor.
Individually, fifth-year forward Mazin Tiea (Windsor, ON/Kennedy) collected his second consecutive West Division Defensive Player of the Year Award and West Division First-Team All-Star selection.
He led the OCAA in field goal percentage with a 68.4 per cent conversion rate as well as total blocks, recording 1.6 per game. Tiea was ninth in offensive rebounding (2.3 per game) across the league and led the Saints in total rebounding with 5.9 per contest while sitting third on the team with a 12.0 ppg average.
Fifth year guard Jacob Masters (Toronto, ON) also made the West Division First-Team All-Star squad after leading the Saints with 15.3 ppg which is top 20 in the OCAA. He led the league in 3-point makes (58) and was 12th in efficiency from distance shooting 39.2 per cent from beyond the arc to go with the 15th most assists at 3.1 per game.
"The fifth-year guys, Mazin and Jacob, they've led us all year, on and off the court, and they did a really good job keeping their composure all season," said coach Sykes. "They pushed us forward all season, and we'll look forward to seeing them be leaders again this weekend, when it matters most."
Fourth-year year guard Kyle Brown-Fazekas (Windsor, ON/Kennedy) was a West Division Second-Team selection after netting 11.8 ppg but has the fourth most steals in the OCAA at 2.6 per game and added 4.2 rebounds per contest.
"He's sort of our spark plug. Kyle led our team in minutes this year and has that bulldog mentality," Sykes said. "He would literally run through a wall for his teammates and would do anything to win a game. He's the type of guy that you love to have and hate to play against."
Brown-Fazekas says the team is focused on the task at hand during this week's practices.
"The goal is to take it one day at a time, one game at a time, and be champions at the end of Saturday," he said. "I'm going to do whatever my team needs me to do if that means score on offence, and I'll be a scorer. If that's stopping the guy across from me, that's what I'll do. No matter what, I'm going to do what I've got to do to get my team a win."
The Kennedy High School graduate is hoping to put on a show for the home crowd.
"This is one of the first times a lot of people, my family, can be at the gym all at once," he said. "We've got a great gym to do it in so we're hoping that we can just do it and get the job done."