X Men Basketball Defeated on the Road

Capers improve to 7-0 with win over X-Men 

Courtesy Monty Mosher, The Chronicle Herald
Nov. 25, 2010

Christmas will be just perfect for Jim Charters and the unranked Cape Breton Capers.

The defending AUS men’s basketball champions thrashed Steve Konchalski’s St. Francis Xavier X-Men 95-79 Wednesday night at a jammed Sullivan Field House for a 7-0 record entering the holiday break.

The fourth-ranked X-Men are 1-2 with a pair of games on the weekend at UPEI.

It was the last home game against St. F.X. for Paris Carter, Scott Jaspers-Fayer and Phil Nkrumah and the Capers responded with a huge effort.

"It’s a special night up here when St. F.X. comes to town and the boys really wanted to send them out on a high and I thought we got some really good performances," said Capers head coach Jim Charters. "It’s pretty hard not to be motivated in that environment."

The Capers built an early 10-point lead and took a 43-38 advantage to intermission.

St. F.X. came within two in the third quarter before the Capers sprinted away to lead by 12. Nkrumah’s alley-oop jam in the opening minute of the fourth quarter pushed the Cape Breton lead to 16.

Carter finished with a game-high 25 points. Nkrumah had 21 points and 10 boards and Jimmy Dorsey 18 points and seven assists.

Jeremy Dunn had 19, Alberto Rodriguez 15, Charlie Spurr 14, Christian Upshaw 12 and Will Silver 10 for the X-Men.

In the women’s game, it was:

Capers 71, X-Women 68: Five-foot-five guard Tanira McClurkin, a transfer out of Baltimore City Community College, had the hot hand as the defending champions raced into the break with their fourth straight win.

McClurkin had 13 points in the second quarter on her way to a game-high 19. She had five three-pointers.

"She played exceptional," said Cape Breton head coach Fabian McKenzie. "It was a big game, the atmosphere was like you’d never see anywhere else in this country, and she didn’t get rattled at all.

"The littlest girl on the floor played real big."

St. F.X. led 64-63 in the fourth quarter and only trailed by one in the last 35 seconds. But the Capers were clutch from the foul line to close it out.

Cape Breton is 5-2 and St. F.X. 2-1.

Nicole Works and Stephanie Toxopeus each added 11 and rookie Kayla McCarron 10 for Cape Breton. Works had 13 assists to set a school record.

Sheryl Chisholm had 13 points, Kirsten Jones and Lockhart 11 each and Donisha Young 10 for St. F.X.