X-Men earn second straight win over Sea-Hawks

ANTIGONISH, NS - The STFX X-Men used 21 free throws and 18 points off turnovers to drop the Memorial Sea-Hawks 76-66 on Saturday afternoon on Coach K Court.

Gabriel Pizza Player of the Game DJ Jackson led all scorers with 25 points and 9 boards, while Phoenyx Wyse had 15 for STFX. Javian Downey and Norm Burry each had 17 points for Memorial for fell for the second straight day to the X-Men.

Memorial jumped to a 10-3 lead in the first three minutes, thanks to six straight points. A Jackson jumper followed by a pair of free throws put X up one point three minutes before the buzzer. Memorial responded with a run of their own and five points in a row from Burry and they led 25-21 at the start of the second quarter. 

The back-and-forth action continued in the next 10 minutes, with Memorial scoring the first four points, and X dropping the next 8 to tie things up. Memorial was up in the final minute, but an and-1 from Tariq Armstrong tied things up again just before half. 

Five in a row from Owen Frayne gave X a lead halfway through the third, but Burry responded with five straight of his own to draw things even once again. Frayne and Downey traded three's late in the third with STFX up by one, and Jackson went 2-2 from the charity stripe to put X up by two heading into the fourth quarter at 60-58. 

Ivan Tsafack tied things up for Memorial on their first possession of the fourth, but 9 straight points from STFX gave the home side the biggest lead of the game with six minutes to go. Memorial cut the lead to four with a minute to go but that's as close as they got with the X-Men holding on for victory. 

With the win, the X-Men moved into a two-way tie atop the AUS standings with Acadia. The X-Men return to the hardwood on Friday, January 16, when they host the Dalhousie Tigers at 8 p.m. Memorial is home to Acadia next Friday. 

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Recap courtesy Matt Draper, STFX Athletics