The X-Men basketball team fell to their AUS rival Saint Mary’s Huskies 71-66 Sunday afternoon in the championship game at the Dalplex in Halifax at the annual Dalhousie Rod Shoveller tournament.

The X-Men held the lead in the game after each of the first three quarters of play, but the fourth quarter proved to be the difference as the Huskies turned around the game and held on for the tournament win.

First quarter action saw the X-Men establish a six-point margin at 14-8 after ten minutes of play. They increased their lead to as much as 11 points early on in the second half but the Huskies came back to close the gap. Saint Mary’s outscored the X-Men 19-17 in the second quarter with the X-Men holding onto a small 31-27 lead at half-time.

StFX put the pressure on the Huskies in the third quarter and again built up an 11 point lead, which was again erased by Saint Mary’s, who pulled to within a point at 52-51 after three quarters of play.

The fourth quarter saw the Huskies open up with a four point run to draw ahead of StFX and the CIS ranked No. 3 X-Men were left trying to play catch up for the remainder of the final quarter. The Huskies held a five point lead at 65-60 with three minutes left in the game and the X-Men struggled to sink a basket in the final minutes. The final tally closed out at 71-66 in favour of the Huskies as Tournament MVP Ikeobi Uchegbu led SMU with 18 points and 9 rebounds.

Mark McLaughlin scored 16 points and had 6 assists and 3 steals for the Huskies while Player of the Game Miguel Pink scored 11 and Joey Haywood chipped in with 12 points and 6 rebounds.

Leading the X attack was tournament all-star Christian T-Bear Upshaw with 21 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. Fellow all-star Jeremy Dunn scored 11 points and had 6 rebounds while Charlie Spurr scored 9 points and added 5 rebounds.

Also being named to the tournament all-star team in the eight-team invitational was Josh Gibson-Bascombe from Ottawa, Simon Farine from Dalhousie and Simon Marr from Saint Mary’s.

The Ottawa Gee Gee’s defeated the host Dalhousie Tigers 72-52 in the bronze medal game. The Tigers had lost a hard-fought 69-66 game to the eventual champion Huskies in the semi-finals the night before. The X-Men had advanced to the final with a 97-82 win over Ottawa. Rounding out the tournament results were Laurentian (4th), Acadia (5th), Concordia (6th) and Wilfrid Laurier (8th).

The X-Men will resume regular season AUS action on the upcoming weekend as they travel to Memorial University of Newfoundland for a pair of games against the Seahawks. With a 5-0 record in first place, the X-Men will be looking to extend their winning streak over the sixth place 1-5 Seahawks.

StFX Sports Information