X-Men basketball undefeated atop AUS

After being honored for his 735th CIS record-breaking career win on Friday night, Coach K’s X-Men added two more to his win column with 89-72 and 85-72 victories over Acadia and Dalhousie, respectively. Both games were played at the StFX Oland Centre as the X-Men closed out AUS play prior to the Christmas break as the only undefeated team at 5-0.

On Friday night in front of a packed StFX crowd, the CIS ranked No. 7 X-Men led 15-12 after the first quarter, thanks to a late three-point dish by Charlie Spurr. They increased their lead to 44-27 at half-time after erasing an Acadia five-point lead to go on a scoring run in the latter half of the quarter.

The X-Men continued their scoring onslaught into the third quarter and led as much as 21 points. The Axemen launched a comeback and were within 9 points of the lead but that would be as close as they would come as the quarter closed out 63-53 in favour of StFX.

The X-Men came out on fire in the fourth quarter and again built up a 20 point lead. They put on a crowd-pleasing performance with pretty passing plays and slam dunks by Alberto Rodriguez, garnering a standing ovation with just over two minutes left to play. 

Five X-Men were in double scoring figures in the 89-72 win, including T-Bear Upshaw with 27 points, 5 rebounds, 10 assists and 3 steals. Rodriguez scored 17 points and had 6 rebounds and 4 steals while Jeremy Dunn contributed 13 points. Player of the Game Will Silver scored 12 points and had 5 rebounds, 11 assists and 8 steals. Charlie Spurr added 11 points for the blue and white.

Alexander Traikov was the high-scorer for the Axemen with 22 points and 16 rebounds and Owen Klassen contributed 16 points and 7 rebounds as Acadia suffered their first loss of the season.

The X-Men continued their winning ways on Saturday afternoon with an 85-72 win over the visiting Dalhousie Tigers.

The X-Men held a one point lead (15-14) after the first quarter of play and a half-time lead of 37-32. The Tigers outscored StFX in the third quarter and were within striking distance down 58-56 after 30 minutes of play, however, the X-Men came back in the final frame and outpowered the Tigers en route to the 13 point victory.

Leading the X charge were guards T-Bear Upshaw and Charlie Spurr. Upshaw scored 26 points and added 6 rebounds and 8 assists with Spurr scoring 24 points for the blue and white. Alberto Rodriguez scored 11 points and had 7 rebounds and Will Silver chipped in with 8 points and 7 rebounds.

Simon Farine was the Tigers top point-getter with 27 points and he tallied 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals. Joseph Schow had a double-double game with 18 points and 11 rebounds and Sandy Veit scored 12.

With the two weekend wins the X-Men improve to 5-0 on the season and are in sole possession of first place with 14 points, two ahead of both Acadia (4-2) and Cape Breton (4-1). They have concluded regular season play and will break for the Christmas holidays. On January 2-4, the X-Men will participate in exhibition action at the Dalhousie Shoveller Invitational before resuming AUS regular season action Jan. 9-10 with two games at Memorial University.