Friday 15 February 2008

AUS: St. FX edges CBU

St. FX (12-5, 34 pts.) 69, Cape Breton (14-4, 40 pts.) 68 6'3" Tyler Richards scored the winning basket on a take to the rim with 45 seconds remaining and the X-Men survived a key turnover giving the Capers one last chance to win with 7 seconds remaining but then created a turnover of their own to remain in the hunt for a first-round bye in the AUS tournament. The X-Men appeared to have wrestled control of the game mid-way through the third quarter when, up 7 with their largest lead at 54-47, they began turning it over against the Capers press and watched as CBU tied the game. After that, there was no lead greater than two points and 6'4" Terrence Taylor knocked in a foul line jumper to give X a one-point lead with a minute left. On the next possession, Capers 5'10" freshman Tremaine Fraser converted a back-door layup and CBU regained the lead, setting up Richards drive to the basket for the final bucket of the game and the margin of victory. After X held, the Capers began to foul to try to put the X-Men into the bonus and their diligence was rewarded when X turned the ball over giving the Capers the ball with 7 seconds left down 1. On the final possession of the game, CBU ran a high ball screen which X trapped and created the final turnover to seal the win. 6'8" Islam Luiz de Toledo, solidifying his place atop the list of top freshmen, was X's best player on the night, scoring 18 points and grabbing 14 rebounds while getting the best of 6'5" Eric Breland (9 points, 5 rebounds) who unfortunately got into early foul trouble, played only 10 first-half minutes and never really got into the flow of the game as a result. Capers got a tremendous effort from 6'5" Phil Nkrumah (25 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 steals) who then fouled out late in the game. 6'4" Paul Blake added 14 points and 11 boards for Cape Breton. If these two teams are tied for second place, Cape Breton by virtue of the point differential between the two teams in the head-to-head (tied 2 games apiece), would win the tie-breaker.

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