The St. Clair Saints are not awed by the stage.

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The St. Clair Saints are not awed by the stage.

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For the fourth year in a row, the Saints will play for a medal at the OCAA men’s basketball Final Four, which will be held Saturday and Sunday in Etobicoke.

“Everyone who is a basketball player, your end goal is to get to the championship,” Saints’ guard Kyle Brown-Fazekas said.

A Kennedy high school product, Brown-Fazekas did just that a year ago with the Humber Hawks before opting to return home to Windsor and play for the Saints.

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“It’s been so amazing,” the 22-year-old Brown-Fazekas said of joining the Saints. “Probably my best year since I’ve been in college. I’m a big family guy, so having my family around constantly is a big uplifter for me. Like they say, no place like home.”

Brown-Fazekas gives the Saints plenty of Final Four experience with six Saints back from last year’s squad and fellow transfer Jacob Masters, who won a silver with George Brown last year before heading to St. Clair.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who have been in this situation before,” Saints’ co-head coach Brendon Seguin said. “Just having those veterans guys, it’s easier as a coach. They’re super competitive, they’re very close knit, so I’m really excited for these guys to get a chance to do it.”

After winning gold in 2023 and silver in 2022, the Saints finished fourth last year after falling to 83-75 to the George Brown Huskies in the semis and then 82-69 to the Durham Lords in the bronze-medal game. The Saints will face Durham in the semis at 6 p.m. on Saturday with the winner taking on the winner of Humber and the Georgian Grizzlies in Sunday’s gold medal. The semifinal losers meet for bronze.

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“I still think about (last year) sometimes what we could have done, but that’s in the past, so I just try to focus on this year and what we can do,” Saints’ guard/forward Darnelle Peddie said.

A fifth-year senior, Peddie is the last remaining member of Seguin’s first-recruiting class with co-head coach Matt Sykes. If the Saints finish in the top two at this year’s event, the squad will advance to nationals. Otherwise, it’s the end of his collegiate career.

“I can’t think about that right now,” the 24-year-old Peddie said. “Just go along with the ride and try to get a gold medal.

“I love the playoffs. It shows who wants it more. Everyone’s playing like it’s their last game. We get everyone’s best and we give everyone their best fight. Leave everything on the court because it might be your last, for sure it could be my last game, at any moment. So, don’t take this for granted and play with no regrets.”

Durham went 17-1 to win the East Division and has not played St. Clair this season aside from an exhibition game in Windsor on Oct. 6 that the Saints won 82-77.

“To me, this team has changed phenomenally from that game,” Brown-Fazekas said of the Saints. “That was our second game as a team. Now, we have a whole season playing with each other and to me our team only got better.”

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The Saints carry an eight-game winning streak into the semis and Seguin hopes experience and last year’s fourth-place finish provide motivation this time around.

“Durham beat us for the bronze (last year), so hopefully there’s a little chip on our shoulder,” Seguin said. “A coach’s job is to get the players mentally focused enough and not take the events too high and be ready to play. Just to play really, really hard. If we play hard, I think we can win the tournament. If we play hard and play well on the defensive end, we’ll give ourselves a good chance to win.”

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