By John DeCoste
It will be Acadia and Cape Breton in the Atlantic University Sport men's basketball final March. 3 after both teams scored semifinal victories Saturday evening at the Halifax Metro Centre.
The Axemen advanced with a 74-55 win over the Saint Mary's Huskies. Earlier in the evening, Capers punched their ticket with an 80-70 win over St. F.X.
Acadia led 18-15 after one quarter in their match up with SMU and then won the second quarter 17-12 for a 35-27 halftime lead. The Axemen took the third quarter 19-18 and the fourth 20-10 to win.
Tyler Scott led Acadia with 19 points, including 5-8 from three-point range, to earn player of the game honours. Anthony Ashe added 15 points and 13 rebounds; Owen Klassen 13 points and 12 boards and Anthony Sears 12 points.
Riley Halpin had a solid game for the Huskies, leading all scorers with 21 points to go along with eight rebounds. Harry Ezenibe added 10 points for Saint Mary's, which went 6-20 from the free throw line.
In the early game between CBU and St. F.X., Sean McCormick finished with 19 points; Meshack Lufile 18; conference MVP James Dorsey 14 and Arild Geugles 11 to lead Cape Breton to its win. The Capers led 44-36 at halftime, but St. F.X. fought back to tie the score at 68 in the fourth quarter.
Horton High graduate Jeremy Dunn led all scorers with 23 points for the X-Men in his final AUBC game. Tyrell Vernon added 19 points for X-men. Both Dunn and Vernon had a trio of three-pointers.
Acadia advances to the conference final for the third straight year. The Axemen will be looking for a second straight conference title and a third straight trip to the CIS Final Eight, which is in Ottawa this year.
The Axemen and Capers played each other four times during the regular season, with Cape Breton winning three of the four. Acadia's win was the lone loss for the Capers who finished the regular season 19-1. The Axemen were 15-5.
Game time tomorrow is 2 p.m. and the webcast can be seen at www.austv.ca
