StFX to meet SMU in Shoveller final
Courtesy Monty Mosher, The Chronicle Herald

It’s like the St. Francis Xavier X-Men never left for the holidays.

Steve Konchalski’s team rolled again on Saturday, this time straight to this afternoon’s 3 p.m. final of the 19th annual Rod Shoveller Memorial men’s basketball tournament at Dalplex.

The X-Men will take on the Saint Mary’s Huskies today after they defeated the host Tigers 69-66 in the other semifinal.

Coming off an 88-57 win over Wilfrid Laurier to begin the second half on Friday, the CIS third-ranked X-Men ran their overall record to 14-2 on the season with a 97-82 semifinal victory over the Ottawa Gee-Gees. Konchalski’s team has won eight straight and hasn’t lost since Oct. 25 against Guelph in Ontario.

The X-Men will go for their seventh Shoveller victory today and fourth in five years.

Christian (T-Bear) Upshaw went off for 25 points, including four three-pointers, to lead the X-Men. Alberto Rodriguez had 15, Jeremy Dunn 13 points and 10 rebounds, Charlie Spurr 13 points and William Silver 11.

Upshaw said it’s no accident the X-Men have come back strong in the early days after the break.

"Coach made sure that everybody stayed in the gym," Upshaw said after the win. "He gave us a workout program to take home. And the guys are just focused this year. Guys want to win. They are ready to come and play hard."

The X-Men started slowly for a second straight day and trailed 26-22 after 10 minutes. But they dominated the second and third quarters 57-36 before distributing some bench minutes in the fourth quarter.

Upshaw said the X-Men have taken some of the upheaval from a turbulent 2008-09 season and used it for fuel this season.

"We made a promise to ourselves to make sure we’re more disciplined on the court and off the court just for Coach K," he said. "I mean the guy works so hard for us we have to do the same thing for him."

Konchalski said the team has a strong mental approach.

"Obviously, the guys committed to staying in shape over Christmas and came back with a real good mental focus," he said. "It’s a team that really wants to win. Everybody says that, but some teams have that intrinsically more than others and this is one of those."

Josh Gibson-Bascombe had 22 points and 11 rebounds for the Gee-Gees.

Games today are at 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Huskies 69, Tigers 66 — Ross Quackenbush’s team will seek its first Shoveller win since 2003 on the strength of 15 points from Ikeobi Uchegbu and Simon Marr.

Simon Farine had 21 for Dalhousie, which will battle Ottawa for bronze.

Axemen 72, Golden Hawks 54 — In the first consolation semifinal, rookie forward Owen Klassen had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds and senior forward Alex Traikov had 13 boards and 10 points as Acadia bounced back from a 25-point loss to Ottawa on Friday.

It was Acadia’s fifth game in six days.

Anthony Sears, another freshman, led all scorers with 20 points and added three assists. Sophomore Casey Fox had 13 points and four boards and Jonathan Kamba 12 points.

Jesse MacDonald led Wilfrid Laurier with 15 points.

Voyageurs 94, Stingers 85 — Second-year guards Manny and Isiah Pasquale, sons of former national team player and Canadian Olympian Eli Pasquale, combined for 35 points in Laurentian’s win. Manny had 18 and Isiah 17.

David Otterbein added 15 as the Vees advanced to play Acadia in the fifth-place game.

James Clark and Vali Lazarescu each had 20 for Concordia, which will face Wilfrid Laurier for seventh.