Sunday 22 November 2009

St. FX 83, Dalhousie 71

The X-Men used a dominating 38-16 run bridging the third and fourth quarters to break open a tight game and, in an incredible third quarter shooting display, 5'10" Christian T-Bear Upshaw scored the first 19 points of the quarter for the X-Men including six consecutive threes to lift X to an asertive win over #4 Dalhousie Tigers in Halifax. Upshaw finished with 30 points (including 8-12 from 3 point land) in only 24 minutes, battling foul trouble before finally fouling out in the fourth quarter.

With score tied at halftime, the diminutive guard turned the ball over on X's first 3 possessions of the second half, helping Dal to score the first 6 points of the quarter to re-establish a 6 point lead. But then Upshaw completely took the game over, hitting 6 consecutive 3's and then feeding 5'9" Will Silver (12 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals) for the go-ahead bucket that started a mini 11-2 run as X grabbed their largest lead of the game at 56-48 to that point. Dal was able to cut the lead by the end of the third but then the X-Men put the game away early in the fourth, garnering their largest lead at 83-62 midway through the final frame.

Dal led throughout the first half until 6'1" Algonquin transfer Charlie Spurr (15 points) hit a pair of threes, propelling X on a 9-0 run to take their first lead late in the second quarter. However, 6'3" Marcus Wong, who finished with just 8 points, hit a three of his own late in the quarter to tie the game going into halftime. 6'5" freshman Chris Hunt, who led Dal with 14 points and was inserted into the starting lineup by Dal Head Coach John Campbell in the absence of fifth-year guard Andrew Sullivan, went a perfect 3-3 from beyond the arc and had 10 points to lead all scorers in the first half.

The X-Men forced 6'2" star guard Simon Farine into a 3-13 shooting effort including 0-4 from 3, holding Farine to just 12 points. Farine did add 6 rebounds and 7 assists. 6'3" freshman Jordan Clarke has 10 points on 4-6 shooting for X. St. FX played without 6'5" Terrence Taylor.

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NOTES: Taylor missed the game due to a knee injury for which an MRI is scheduled for this Wednesday to examine what some believe to be a miniscus problem... Sullivan sat out the game with a severe case of the flu... X finishes their first half with a pair of tough home games next weekend: Friday night against 4-0 Acadia and then the rematch with Dal in Antigonish on Saturday. Prior to meeeting X on Saturday, the Tigers will face Cape Breton in Sydney on Friday as the first half of the AUS schedule ends until after Christmas... Unfortunately for basketball fans, Dal sports department decided to cover the AUS swimming meet instead of webcasting the basketball game this afternoon.

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