DURHAM 91, ST. LAWRENCE (K) 81

OSHAWA, Ont. - With their playoff lives on the line, the Durham College men's basketball team pulled off a 91-81 victory over the St. Lawrence Vikings in their final home game of the regular season.

With the 10-point victory, Durham is in a logjam for fifth place in the OCAA East region standings as they are tied with Loyalist, Seneca and St. Lawrence who all have matching 9-10 records. The cluster of teams trail Centennial (9-9) by a half game for fourth place in the regional standings. The top-six teams in the region will qualify for post-season play.

With one game remaining in the regular season, Durham will look to clinch a playoff spot when they take on the winless Fleming Knights on Wednesday, Feb. 19 in Peterborough. Durham defeated Fleming 88-74 in their first meeting of the season.

Trailing by one point in the fourth quarter against St. Lawrence, Durham went on a 10-2 run led by a pair of three-pointers by Saliym Cadogan (Toronto). With St. Lawrence cutting the Lords' lead to four-points late in the game, Durham closed out the night on a 6-0 run to pick up their ninth win of the season.

St. Lawrence managed to hang around the entire game behind the strength of their three-point shooting attack as they outscored Durham 42-12 from downtown. Strong shooting from guard Andrew Dawkins led the way for the Vikes as he drained a game-high 32 points, going 12-for-25 from the floor which included seven three-pointers. Big-man Donald Gibson also gave the Vikes a physical presence in the paint as he had 13 points and six rebounds, the majority of which came in the second half.

Ajahmo Clarke (Ajax, Ont.), who is second in OCAA East region scoring, had another big night as he scored 29 points including 21 in the second half. Clarke's strong second half performance led Durham's offensive charge that shot 58.1 per cent over the final 20 minutes. Clarke also added 11 rebounds in the win which gave him his seventh double-double of the year.

Durham's towering pair of Dylan Pelissero (Ridgeway, Ont.) and Eric Smith (Ajax, Ont.) combined for 25 points and 19 rebounds while Cadogan finished up with 12 points. Freshman guard Brendan Heath (Ajax, Ont.) was able to ring up six assists.

Getting to the charity stripe was critical for Durham in the victory as they scored 21-points with an 84 per cent shooting percentage from the free throw line.

Prior to the game, the Lords honoured their graduating seniors which included Cadogan, Curtis Johnson (Whitby, Ont.) and Aron Naim (Paris, Ont.).

Source: Durham College

Photo Credit: Al Fournier