FORMER SAINT SIGNS TO MEXICAN PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL LEAGUE

CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico - Former St. Clair College men's basketball player David Gomez Jr. has signed to play professionally with Correbasket UAT (Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas) of the Mexican National Professional Basketball League (LNBP) officially recognized as Liga Caliente.

The Correbasket UAT Correcaminos (Roadrunners) begin play this weekend in the East Division of the LNBP with a 32-game regular season that stretches until mid-October. The LNBP is the top Mexican professional league that was founded in 2000 with 10 teams before expansion increased its membership to 16 teams which are split evenly between the East and West Divisions.  Former notable players who have spent time in the LNBP include Jamario Moon, Dennis Rodman, Sun Mingming, and Horacio Llamas.

Correbasket UAT is owned by the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas and plays out of the Gimnasio Multidisciplinario at UAT. The city of Ciudad Victoria is in northeast Mexico and is just under a four-hour drive to Brownsville, Tex., across the US border. The was founded in 1995 under the name Correcaminos UAT as a founding member of the Conferencia de Básquetbol Profesional (CBP) and then joined Circuito Mexicano de Básquetbol (CIMEBA) in 1997 before moving next to the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional or Liga Caliente LNBP in 2000. Correbasket UAT was the LNBP Champion in 2002 and has also made the league finals on two other occasions. The team was officially renamed Correbasket UAT in 2016 but still use the nickname Correcaminos.

Gomez Jr. was a three-time OCAA All-Star selection while leading the Saints to the playoffs as their MVP in each of his three seasons and graduated from St. Clair's Sport and Recreation Management program in 2022. In his final year he was named a CCAA All-Canadian, OCAA and CCAA Championship All-Star while helping the Saints to a provincial and national silver medal.  Gomez Jr. finished his career as the sixth all-time leading scorer in St. Clair history with 1,781 points and ranks second among Saints with three or less seasons. He additionally holds the St. Clair single season free throw mark after shooting 90 per cent in 2019-20. Gomez Jr. achieved a 20.7 points per game average for a career which is also second on the St. Clair all-time list for those with more than one season on their resume. For his efforts he was named the Mason MacDonald Graduating Athlete of the Year to cap his accolades at St. Clair College.

Gomez Jr. is originally from Pontiac, Mich., and prior to arriving at St. Clair in 2018 was a Lake Orion High school product before spending two years at Macomb CC (Warren, Mich.).

Source: St. Clair Saints