The St. Francis Xavier X-Men will be heading to the CIS men’s basketball Final 8 after all. But they’ll face a Herculean opponent in the tournament opener.

StFX, which lost 72-60 to the Dalhousie Tigers in the AUS conference championship Saturday at the Metro Centre, still had a legitimate shot at the wild card berth into the CIS Final 8. The X-Men needed an Ottawa win over Windsor in the OUA third-place game Saturday night to secure a spot in the Final 8. The Gee Gees won 73-59.

The X-Men received the wildcard berth into next weekend’s tournament in Ottawa following a vote from a selection committee comprised of CIS coaches Sunday.

StFX will face the No. 1 ranked Carleton Ravens in Friday’s quarter-finals (9 p.m.). The Ravens captured five consecutive CIS titles before their run was halted last year when they dropped a double-overtime decision to Acadia in the semi-final round.
"It’s going to be tough playing Carleton in their home building, but that’s what nationals are all about," StFX head coach Steve Konchalski said Sunday afternoon.

"If you’re going to win it, you would have to face Carleton at some point. And at the same time, beggars can’t be choosers. There are 35 other teams across the country that wish they were in our place. We had the opportunity to win our conference and had we done that, we would have been the No. 4 or 5 seed. But we didn’t take care of business like we needed to yesterday so you take what you can get.

"It’s going to be a challenge for our team, no doubt about it."

The eight-team, single elimination tournament opens Friday afternoon with the second-ranked and Canada West champion Calgary Dinos versus the No. 7 Concordia Stingers.

Dalhousie, which captured its first AUS title since 1996, will make its second appearance ever at nationals. The Tigers will take on Canada West finalists UBC Thunderbirds at 3:30 p.m (AT).

The other quarter-final pits the No. 4 Western Mustangs against fifth seed Ottawa.

The championship final is Sunday afternoon. The defending national champion Brock Badgers failed to make the OUA playoffs.
"It’s a deep tournament," said Konchalski, who has led StFX to three CIS championship titles. "UBC and Calgary had great years and Western is coming on strong. Frankly, I don’t see a weak team in the bracket. It’s a strong field."

Courtesy Glenn MacDonald, The Chronicle Herald