Huskies hold off Axemen 75-72, claim AUS hoops crown

BY JOHN DECOSTE

Nova NewsNow.com

The Acadia basketball Axemen gave it their best shot, but a seven-point halftime deficit to the Saint Mary’s Huskies proved just too much to overcome.

The Huskies took advantage of some hot shooting to build a 49-42 halftime lead over the top-ranked Axemen in Sunday’s AUBC final.

And while Acadia tightened up its defense in the second half, even managing to take a short-lived 72-71 lead with 2:24 to play, SMU hung on for a 75-72 win, leaving Acadia’s hopes of making it to the CIS ‘Final Eight’ in the hands of the wildcard selection committee.

Playing their third game in less than 48 hours, the Huskies, led by Ikeobi Uchegbu and Aaron Duncan, led 29-20 after 10 minutes.

Acadia won each of the final three quarters by two points (22-20, 20-18 and 10-8), but it still left the Axemen three points shy at the final buzzer. Acadia had two chances to tie the score with a three-pointer in the final seconds, but was unable to get a shot away.

Duncan led all scorers with 21 points, 16 of which came in the first half. Uchegbu added 16 (12 in the first half) and tournament MVP Mark McLaughlin 15 for the Huskies.

Achuil Lual led Acadia with 18 points and 12 rebounds in what could have been his last game for Acadia. Leo Saintil and Shawn Berry each had 15 points, with Saintil picking up 10 rebounds. Andrew Kraus chipped in 11 points and eight assists.

“We gave up far too many first-half points,” Axemen head coach Les Berry said after the game. “They shot the ball really well, but overall, 49 points is a lot of points to give up.”

Berry was pleased with “a real strong defensive effort” by the Axemen in the fourth quarter that gave them a chance to maybe pull out the victory.

“We scrapped and clawed all the way,” holding SMU to eight fourth-quarter points, “but it was just too big a deficit to overcome,” he said.

“As it turned out, a lack of defensive intensity in the first quarter was our undoing. We managed to get it back in the second half, but just couldn’t get over that hump.”

Acadia expected to hear sometime Sunday evening whether or not they had secured the final wildcard berth to this coming weekend’s CIS championship in Ottawa. Berry admitted that with Acadia having been the number-two team in the country entering the conference championship, “I would be shocked for our guys if we don’t get it.”