(Ottawa, ON) St. Francis Xavier’s Christian (T-Bear) Upshaw of Halifax was named a first team all-Canadian at the CIS men’s basketball awards banquet on Thursday night in Ottawa. The third-year point guard averaged 19.1 points for the Atlantic regular season champion X-Men, who face the top-seeded and host Carleton Ravens in Friday’s late quarterfinal (The Score, 11 p.m. AST, tape delay) at Scotiabank Place.

“I can’t wait for game time,” said the 22-year-old Upshaw. “This is what we’ve worked all year for and now it’s here. There’s no better place to be right now.”

The five-foot-10 player earned Atlantic conference MVP accolades and was one of five finalists for the Mike Moser Memorial Trophy awarded annually to the national player of the year, won by Trinity Western forward Jacob Doerksen. Concordia’s Damian Buckley, Windsor’s Greg Surmacz and Carleton’s Stuart Turnbull were also nominated.

Friday’s other quarterfinal matchups include Concordia/Calgary, Dalhousie/UBC and Western/Ottawa.

Story courtesy Chris Kallan