Antigonish, NS – On the strength of a 23-7 fourth quarter, the STFX X-Men came back to defeat the Acadia Axemen 73-64 Wednesday night on Coach K Court in their AUG regular season home opener.
The teams opened the game with a low scoring five minutes of play. The Axemen were up 9-4 midway through the quarter and built up a lead despite a late X-Men surge. The score was 19-13 in favour of the Axemen after the opening frame.
A pair of three-pointers early on in the second by Alex Muise (Halifax, NS) and Ryan Munro (Timberlea, NS) helped the Axemen halt the X-Men momentum and they held an eight-point lead, 30-22 midway through.
The same duo of Muise and Munro punished the X-Men again from three-point territory late in the quarter and Acadia led 40-31 at halftime.
Munro had 12 points for the Axemen in the first half, all from three-point range.
Handy Disanka (Broussard, QC) scored six for the X-Men, including a crowd-pleasing dunk.
The third quarter saw the Axemen maintain their lead, though X showed signs of breaking through and closing the gap. The X-Men outscored the Axemen 19-17, but it was the visitors who held a 57-51 lead after three quarters of play.
The X-Men chipped away at the Axemen lead, propelled by the energy of the home crowd. They closed the gap to four points, 63-59 with just under six minutes to play.
Two minutes later a Disanka basket for X knotted things up at 63-63.
The X-Men took their first lead since the opening quarter and were up by seven points with under three minutes to play.
They held on for the final minutes of play down the stretch and took home the 73-64 victory.
Disanka earned Subway player of the game honours for his 17 point, 5 rebound effort off the X-Men bench.
Avan Nava (Mississauga, ON) scored 13 points for X and Justin Andrew (Hamilton, ON) added 12. David Muenkat (Brampton, ON) was STFX't top rebounder with 14 on the night.
For the Axemen, Rowan Power (Dartmouth, NS) scored a game-high 19 points, while Muise and Munro each finished with 13 points apiece.
Power was also Acadia's top rebounder with nine on the night.
The same two squads will play in a rematch game in Wolfville, NS as Acadia hosts an 8:00 pm game.
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Courtesy Krista McKenna, STFX Athletics