Furious Rally Saves X-Men

Courtesy Monty Mosher, The Chronicle Herald

Steve Konchalski would like to see more games like his St. Francis Xavier X-Men got from the Saint Mary’s Huskies on Wednesday night at The Tower.

It might not be good for the veteran coach’s health.

The CIS No. 5 X-Men sprinted back from eight points down in the final 67 seconds to beat the Huskies 93-92 in AUS men’s basketball. Jeremy Dunn capped a 22-point night with a three-pointer with 14 seconds to play to bring his team back.

Joey Haywood’s awkward three-point try from the sideline came up short at the horn, muting a full house that saw a game worth four points in the standings slip away.

The X-Men are 9-3 and have won eight of their last nine. The Huskies are 6-9.

"It took us a while to get going, that’s for sure," said Dunn, a third-year player from Wolfville. "SMU was ready to go at the start of the game and it took us a while to get into it, but once we did we started to play as a team and started attacking the hoop a lot more."

The X-Men, down by 15 in the third quarter, crept back to 86-84 on Christian (T-Bear) Upshaw’s bucket and foul shot with two minutes left in the game.

The SMU faithful breathed a sigh of relief after Miguel Pink made consecutive treys to restore an eight-point bulge.

But Upshaw struck for three from the corner and, after an Alberto Rodriguez block, picked up a three-point play to make it 92-90 with 43 seconds left. A Huskies turnover gave Dunn his chance to hit the winning shot.

"That’s what you expect from T-Bear," said Dunn. "He’s an all-Canadian. He’s our leader. He’s our guy."

Konchalski credited his team for hanging in to the finish on a night where execution was frequently lacking.

"Maybe they haven’t brought their A game on a consistent basis, but today they did," Konchalski said of the Huskies. "I thought it took a lot of character for us to come back.

"We’ve kind of had our way in the last two or three weeks, except for (a double overtime loss to) Cape Breton, but we need more games like this. If you are going to win a championship, you’ve got to be able to win games like this."

SMU led 26-12 after a quarter and 45-40 at the half. The Huskies led by seven after 30 minutes.

Huskies head coach Ross Quackenbush didn’t want to discuss any positives.

"I just think we got shoved around under the boards a little too much for my liking. When push comes to shove you’ve got to push back a little harder. I think in the second quarter, when we let them back in the game, it was our mistakes that let them back in."

Upshaw finished with 19, Will Silver with 13 and Rodriguez 11. Silver added nine rebound and seven assists.

Haywood, the CIS scoring leader, had 25, all but six after the break.

Torey Fassett and Harry Ezenibe added 19 each and Jerome Smith and Iain Robertson 10 apiece. Ezenibe had 10 rebounds.

In women’s play, it was:

X-Women 75, Huskies 68: At The Tower, St. F.X. got off to a fast start on their way to a win over Saint Mary’s.

The visitors led 22-9 at the end of the first quarter.

Sheryl Chisholm led St. F.X. with 18 points while Jocelyn Moore, Victoria Anderson and Donisha Young had 10 each.

CIS scoring leader Justine Colley had 23 points, seven rebounds and five assists for the Huskies.

Susanne Canvin had 17 points and nine boards. Robbi Daley had 11 points and Rebecca Nuttall 10.

The X-Women upped their record to 8-4 while the Huskies dropped to 7-8.