T-Bear leads X-Men to win over Tigers

The CIS No. 9 X-Men basketball team, led by a 30 point effort by Christian ‘T-Bear’ Upshaw, pulled off an 83-71 win over the No. 4 Dalhousie Tigers Sunday afternoon in Halifax. It was the first time the two teams have met since the Tigers defeated the X-Men 72-60 in last year’s AUS final.

After a sluggish first quarter that saw the Tigers up 18-11, the X-Men played better in the second frame to even the score at 33-33 at half-time, then Upshaw stepped it up a notch in the third quarter to pull the X-Men ahead by 60-53. Upshaw scored six three-pointers in the third quarter alone and was 8 for 12 from three-point range when the final buzzer sounded for the 83-71 StFX win.

Charlie Spurr scored 15 points for StFX and Will Silver tallied 12 with 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals. Jordan Clarke contributed 10 points for the X-Men.

Four Dalhousie Tigers were in double scoring figures, including Chris Hunt with 14 points, Simon Farine with 12, Sany Veit with 11 points and 8 rebounds and Nick Flynn with 10 points.

Farine earned Player of the Game honors for Dalhousie while T-Bear Upshaw was the Player of the Game for StFX.

With the win, the X-Men improve to 3-0 on the season and are currently tied for second place with Saint Mary’s in the AUS as each team has 10 points to their credit, two back of first place Acadia. The X-Men will battle it out with the Acadia as they host the first place Axemen on Friday night at 8:00 pm at the StFX Oland Centre.

The game marks the X-Men’s first regular season home game and at 7:35 pm, the university will honor veteran head coach Steve Konchalski in a pre-game ceremony. Coach K recently became the all-time CIS career leader in wins with 735 regular season, playoff and non-conference victories to his credit.

All fans, former X-Men players, alumni, and basketball supporters are encouraged to come to the StFX Oland Centre to show their support for Coach K. The first 735 fans to the game will receive a commemorative Coach K poster, and Central Home Improvement has donated a $735 gift certificate which will be won by a luck fan.

The X-Men will also host the Dalhousie Tigers on Saturday afternoon at 4:00 pm.