(HALIFAX, NS)—The Saint Mary's Huskies defeated the StFX X-Men 81-80 in a nail biter that went down to the wire from the Homburg Centre Wednesday night in AUS action.
The victory was worth four points in the standings for the Huskies, who improve to 7-4 on the year, while the X-Men drop to 4-7 in conference play.
SMU guard Nikita Kasongo (Montreal, QC) led all scorers on the night with 24 points and seven rebounds.
The Huskies jumped out to a 25-11 first quarter lead and used a 19-15 second quarter to take a 44-26 halftime lead into the locker room.
StFX played to a 32-22 third quarter advantage to trim into Saint Mary's lead to 66-58 after 30 minutes.
Both teams traded buckets in the fourth quarter—as the X-Men outscored the Huskies 22-15 in the final frame—and the game went down to the last possession for StFX.
The X-Men elected to play defense in the final minute and not foul the Huskies. They forced a turnover with 19 seconds left and called their final time-out trailing 81-78.
The SMU defence forced StFX into two misplayed three-point attempts, as the X-Men scored a lay-up at the buzzer and the Huskies held on for the slim 81-80 victory.
Reigning AUS most valuable player Kevin Bercy (Kanata, ON) paced StFX with a double-double, scoring 17 points and pulling in 15 rebounds.
Also scoring for StFX were Julius Antoine (Vaughan, ON) with 16 points, Cameron Walker (Dallas, TX) with 11, and Tristen Ross (Truro, NS) who contributed 10 points.
Nico Brauner (Wiesbaden, GER) chipped in 21 points and six rebounds for SMU, while teammate Kemar Alleyne (Scarborough, ON) had 18 points and nine rebounds.
Up next for StFX is a visit to the Cape Breton University Capers (2-9) on Saturday evening, January 20th.
Saint Mary's hits the road for a pair of games in versus the UNB Varsity Reds (10-1) on January 26th and 27th.
-30-
Courtesy Dominic Nolasco, SMU Sports Information