Hoop X-Men wrap up AUS season

Photo courtesy Nick Pearce - file photo
Photo courtesy Nick Pearce - file photo

(HALIFAX, N.S.)--The Saint Mary's Huskies defeated the StFX X-Men 91-72 Friday night in AUS men's basketball action from the Homburg Centre. The game marked the final regular season game for the X-Men who close out the season 4-16 and out of AUS playoff contention.

The Huskies improve to 12-7 and sit in third place in the AUS standings.

Julius Antoine (Woodbridge, Ont.) paced StFX and all scorers with 16 points, along with 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. Teammates Shane Coupland (Brisbane, Australia) and Cameron Walker (Dallas, Texas) had 14 and 10 points respectively. Walker also hauled in 6 boards.

The X-Men led 18-14 after 10 minutes before a 31-20 SMU second quarter run gave the Huskies a 45-38 halftime lead.

A 27-18 third quarter frame put SMU up 72-56 going into the fourth quarter. The final 10 minutes saw a 19-16 SMU quarter, good for the 91-72 victory.

Marquis Clayton (Halifax, N.S.) and Achuil Lual (Ottawa, Ont.) each had 15 points for SMU, while Brian Rouse (Mississauga, Ont.) added 12 points off the Huskies bench and Toronto's Ryan Augustine chipped in 11 points.

Rounding out the Huskies scoring were Kemar Alleyne (Scarborough, Ont.) with nine points, Aaron Fisher (Savannah, Georgia) with eight, Jeremy McAvoy (Dartmouth, N.S.) had seven while Kadeem Thompson (Toronto, Ont.) had five points.

The game marked the final regular season game for StFX who will miss the AUS playoffs for the first time in 39 years.

Saint Mary's wraps up AUS regular season play Saturday when they host UPEI (14-4).