X-Men Basketball win 32nd Annual Nike StFX Invitational Tournament

X-Men hosted their 32nd annual Nike StFX Invitational Basketball Tournament this past weekend. The X-Men came out victoriously winning the tournament.

Friday night the X-Men defeated the UPEI Panthers 98-81 in front of a sold out Oland Centre. Leading the way for the X-Men was Charlie Spurr who shot the lights out with eight three’s tallying 24 points in 25 minutes of play. Fifth year senior Alberto Rodriguez played another strong
game, cleaning up the glass and scoring everything under the rim to finish with 17 points and seven rebounds.

It was a night for the Panthers that they’ll surely want to forget. They simply had no answer for Charlie Spurr on the defensive end, failing to get a hand up and contest the
hot shooter. At one point Spurr knocked down three straight threes and shrugged at his defender as if to say, “Do you want me to keep doing this?” It was one of those nights
for the blue and white.

Christian “T-Bear” Upshaw returned from injury to finish with 15 points on 6-11 shooting from the floor along with seven assists and three rebounds.

The stat line of the night could’ve gone to the fifth year senior out of Halifax, Will Silver, who finished just four assists shy of another triple-double. Silver standing lead the team in rebounding with 10 rebounds while netting 13 points.

Shane Coupland out of Australia made his home debut for the blue and white scoring five points and grabbing a rebound.

For the Panthers Terrence Brown tried his best to answer with a few threes of his own, going 6-10 from the outside and finishing with 23 points, but it just wasn’t enough.

The championship game was Saturday night where the X-Men took the court against Saint Mary’s. X-Men took care of business beating the SMU Huskies 98-84. Christian Upshaw was the leading scorer for the X-Men with 24 points.

The first quarter was tight going back and forth as X held a slim one point lead at the finish of the first ten minutes. Terry Thomas' electric dunk got the crowd on its feet and really turned the momentum in the X-Men's favor.

The second quarter was all X as Jeremy Dunn converted a few big threes for the X-Men followed by numerous drives to the rim by T-Bear Upshaw. Riiny Ngot was a factor on the defensive end of the floor resulting in the Huskies' players driving timidly into the paint.

The third and fourth quarter showed shades of X's first game against UPEI as Charlie Spurr erupted for an explosion of threes extending the X lead to 20. The Huskies just simply had no answer for the X attack. Charlie Spurr finished 13-18 from the three on the weekend.

The X-Men’s regular season action starts Sunday November 7th at 4pm against the Saint Mary's Huskies.

Courtesy Mat MacDonald