Huskies beat X-Men in close game down the stretch

Antigonish, NS – In a game that came down to the wire, the Saint Mary's Huskies emerged with a 96-94 victory over the StFX X-Men Wednesday night at the StFX Saputo Centre.

The teams were tied 92-92 with 1:23 left to play in the game then the Huskies took the lead with 50 seconds to go after Johneil Johnson (Lake Echo, NS) drove to the net and dished off to Travis Adams (Halifax, NS) who made good on the basket.

SMU added a couple free throws and held on for the win, improving to 10-8 on the season. The Huskies are currently in fourth place in the AUS standings with 28 points. The X-Men (10-8) with 32 points remain in second place.

The opening quarter was back and forth action. X-Men guard Thomas Legallais (Cornwall, ON) gave the home team an early 7-5 edge midway through the quarter. The Huskies came back and Dontae Mitchell (Vaughan, ON) sunk a three-pointer at the buzzer to give SMU a 23-19 lead after the first.

Mitchell and Johnson each scored five points for SMU while Legallais had eight for the X-Men including a pair from beyond the arc.

The Huskies maintained a slight lead for the opening five minutes of the second quarter. The X-Men evened the game at 33-33 midway through as veteran forward Azaro Roker (Nassau, Bahamas) had a strong quarter for the X-Men, netting nine points.

StFX held a slight 47-46 lead at halftime.

The X-Men opened up a seven-point lead in the opening three minutes of the third quarter. Sebastien Gray (Nassau, Bahamas) drained a three-pointer midway through to give the Huskies a 58-54 lead.

Down by five points with a minute and a half left in the quarter, the X-Men fought back and again held a one-point lead after the quarter expired, this time 70-69.

The teams continued to trade baskets and slim margins of lead in the opening half of the final quarter of play. The X-Men were up 86-82 midway through and lead 89-87 with three minutes left, but the Huskies stuck to their game plan and fought back to tie it up and then take the win down the stretch.

Adams, the Subway player of the game, finished with 17 points for the Huskies.

Mitchell also scored 17, while Johnson tallied a team-high 21. Qyemah Gibson (Nassau, New Providence) was the top rebounder with 10 on the night and contributed nine points.

Justin Andrew (Hamilton, ON) lead the X-Men with 22 points. Roker finished with 20 and had a double-double game with 15 rebounds.

Legallais scored 18 and Dondre Reddick (Antigonish, NS) scored 12 off the bench for the X-Men.

The same two teams will be back in action on Saturday night in Halifax. Tip-off is 8:00 pm.

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Courtesy StFX Sports Information