Saturday, 8 March 2008

AUS Semi-Final: MacIver Saves Axemen

Acadia 83, Dalhousie 75 6'0" Patrick MacIver keyed a game-deciding 11-0 run with the go-ahead three with only 2:45 to play and then later came up with a shot block as the Axemen survived to move into tomorrow's AUS championship game. After 6'1" Simon Farine hit a tough baseline jumper, Dal led by 6 with 3 minutes remaining and the fans smelled an upset. But AUS POY 6'5" Leonel Saintil scored inside and later stole the ball and scored to bring the Axemen back to within 2, setting up MacIver's heroics in one of the more CIS entertaining games in many years. The Tigers ended the third quarter on a 13-0 run which began after 6'1" Andrew Kraus fouled out midway through the quarter. Acadia had ripped off an 8-2 run to break a 50-50 tie culminating in a slick drive by Kraus but then Kraus was called for consecutive fouls and, after he continued to argue, was assessed a technical which was his fifth foul. After the ensuing free throws and another Acadia "T", the Tigers had a 9 point lead at 67-58. But a series of MacIver threes kept Acadia close and the #1 seed did what they needed to do in the final 3 minutes to steal the win. The game feature plenty of transition and athleticism with the Tigers grabbing their first lead midway through the second quarter and holding it until late in the fourth. Dal pulled off a 12-2 run to lead by as many as 7 midway through the second quarter and then took a 4 point lead into halftime. Farine was the main architect of the run which gave Dal their first lead of the game, stripping Saintil and feeding 6'2" Andrew Sullivan for the go-ahead 3 and then later knocking down consecutive midrange jumpers when Acadia decided to go underneath ball screens. 6'5" Drew Stratton made his first 5 shots for Dal, which survived a late 7-0 run by the Axemen as Sullivan hit another 3 to give the Tigers the 4 point lead. 6'5" Sean Berry had 9 first-quarter points including a big 3 in the final minute of the quarter as the Axemen take a 3 point lead after one. Here is Chad Lucas live update on his blog

More to come from Chris Kallan...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am unable to connect with Eastlink...message says they are over loaded...following via Chad Lucas' great post-ups. Must be a great game. Acadia by 3 with 2 to go. Wow.

Anonymous said...

Nice come back by acadia.