Saturday 26 February 2011

CBU, X wins bring more clarity to AUS tournament picture

As expected, both Cape Breton and St. FX held court at home, defeating UNB and UPEI respectively this afternoon (see below for more details).  With UPEI's loss, both UNB and Saint Mary's clinch spots at the tournament.  Acadia now needs to win both of their games tonight and tomorrow afternoon against Memorial at home in Wolfville to make the tournament and eliminate the Panthers.  A Saint Mary's loss tonight at Dalhousie would put them at 7-13 with 20 points, tied with UNB however the Varsity Reds own the tiebreaker after losing in Halifax by 2 but winning their matchup at UNB by 14 (UNB also has 8 wins vs. 7 wins for SMU).  Here are the possibilities:

1.  Acadia wins both, Saint Mary's beats Dal, AUS first round would be:
#3 St. FX vs. #6 UNB
#5 Acadia vs. #4 Saint Mary's

2.  Acadia wins both, Dal beat Saint Mary's, AUS first round would be:
#3 St. FX vs. #6 Saint Mary's
# 5 UNB vs. #4 Acadia

3.  Acadia does not win both
#3 St. FX vs. #6 UPEI
#4 UNB vs. #5 Saint Mary's
- in this scenario, it wouldn't matter what Saint Mary's did tonight against Dal.

Saint Mary's owns the tiebreaker against Acadia (teams went 2-2 but SMU won by a total of 37 vs. Acadia's wins were by combined 17).

Cape Breton 74, UNB 67  Capers had 9 guys who played at least 10 minutes on Senior's Day with 6'8" Scott Jaspers-Fayer leading the way with 15 points.  6'5" Alex Desroches had 20 points and 7 rebounds to lead UNB.

St. FX 107, UPEI 73  X dominated even with their depleted lineup, leading by 22 at halftime and keeping Panthers 6'2" Jon Cooper in check.  X-Men went 11 for 25 from 3 point land, forced 20 UPEI turnovers and shot 51.4% from the floor.  5'9" Will Silver had 13 assists in his final regular season AUS game while 6'5" Jeremy Dunn showed he is close to or at full fitness with 23 points (9-14 shooting) in only 22 minutes.  6'6" freshman Terry Thomas continues to take advantage of his extended time in the rotation with another double double (12 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists).  5'10" Christian "T-Bear" Upshaw led the way with 24 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists and in his final AUS regular season game moved into #9 on the all-time AUS career scoring list with 1,586 points.  T-Bear passed Acadia's Ted Upshaw and UNB's Mike Kierstead and finished just 3 points behind Dalhousie's Dean Thibodeau, a former member of Canada's National team.  T-Bear finishes second all-time on X's career points scored list behind Fred Perry, who remains second overall in AUS scoring history.

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