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After
dropping 2 straight games the X-Men basketball team was
fired up and ready. Not only to put on a show for the
home crowd during back to back home games this past
weekend, they were also determined to come away with 2
wins. This time, each game included the traditionally
fast paced, immensely exciting X-Basketball, smiles from
the bench and most importantly X outscoring their
opponents.
Starting with UPEI on Friday night, X had spent all week
in practice with a bad taste in their mouths that came
from their loss last Sunday on the Island. The X-Men
came out ready to play from the beginning, more than
doubling their energy level from games of late. In a
first half that saw both teams trade baskets and leads
towards the end of the 1st half, X managed to
pull away thanks to 12 first half points from X guard
Tyler Richards who came out looking strong. Doug
Mckinney was the answer for PEI, scoring 12 1st
half points as well. Going into the locker rooms, X was
up 37-32.
To
open the 2nd half X again upped their
intensity and this time PEI was just unable to match it.
It was from here that X started clicking on all
cylinders and their offense flourished off of their
effective defense, led by defensive all-star Garry
Gallimore. Gallimore drew the task of guarding PEI all
star Sherone Edwards (past AUS MVP) who had 21 points in
the last match up. Gallimore made sure there was not a
repeat performance by Edwards, holding him to 6 points
on a dismal 2-7 shooting. In addition to playing great
defense, Gallimore came out firing on the offensive end
as well, ending up with 18 points on only 8 shot
attempts. Joining Gallimore with 18 points was Richards
who shook off a bad shooting game against PEI the
previous weekend, giving X the lift they had been
missing. While these two guards were quite the backcourt
duo, Neil MacDonald led all scorers with 19 points (as
well as adding 13 rebounds to get yet another
double-double this season), and Christian Upshaw was not
to be outdone, finishing with 16 points and 8 assists as
well as a block on the much bigger Mckinney.
A
scary moment for X fans when Upshaw went down was later
laughed off as he had to drink some pickle juice to
alleviate a calf cramp that left him unable to move on
the court. After downing some of the pickle juice he
wasted no time in coming back into the game, delivering
an amazing crossover and then floater in the lane.
Upshaw also came up huge for X with his passes to
MacDonald. The inside/outside combination of the two
proved lethal for PEI and Upshaw’s passes connected with
MacDonald perfectly, resulting in lay up after lay up
for the big man.
After outscoring PEI 43-36 in the second half, X locked
up the 80-68 victory and then shifted their focus to the
game that awaited them the following day. A match up
with Acadia and yet another shot at redemption.
Saturday, February 17th, X was the day some
of the X-men had been anticipating ever since their
76-70 loss back in Wolfville on January 26th.
Energized and eager, coming off of their inspiring win
over PEI, X was in a different state of mind than
Acadia, who came into X after being routed 84-54 by CBU
the night before. While X was ready to extract revenge
for their loss in the last contest, Acadia was prepared
to go to war as well. The match up promised to be
entertaining without all of the background stories. This
just added fuel to the fire, make no mistake, every fan
in the Oland Center gym knew that this wasn’t going to
be easy and would be a battle. And a battle it was.
In
such an emotionally charged game, cool heads would
prevail. It was absolutely critical for X to remain calm
and focused on their end goal, getting a victory. Coach
Konchalski was fully aware that X had surrendered leads
in their past few games as a result of loss of
concentration and he made sure it didn’t happen again.
Unfortunately for Acadia’s star guard Paulos Santana,
neither he nor his coach Les Berry got this memo.
Santana picked up the first technical of the game with
12:30 left in the first half after giving the crowd
quite the show as he danced around the floor expressing
his extreme displeasure over a non-call on one of his
drives to the basket. Gallimore opened this game with
the decision that he was going to use his unique
combination of speed and strength to put points on the
board. Attacking relentlessly he blew by his man and was
rewarded with either a lay up or free throws.
Despite X’s great energy and offensive spacing,
transition and drives, Acadia wasn’t ready to lie down
and take a loss for the second day in a row. They
battled back and with just under 6 minutes to go in the
half tied the game 24-24, then went on to go up by as
much as 10. Santana was the star for Acadia, scoring 13
points as well as grabbing 6 1st half
rebounds to go along with 3 assists. X’s scoring was
distributed evenly. X managed to cut Acadia’s lead to 6
and went into the break down 36-30, prepared to regroup,
refocus and come out strong to show Acadia it’s not easy
to win on the road, especially not at the Oland Center.
Less
than a minute in, the refs call a double technical on X
guard Tyer Richards and Acadia’s Andrew Kraus. The
tech’s came after Gallimore stepped in and drew a charge
on Acadia’s Luckern Dieu. Tempers flared, technical free
throws were shot and at the end of it, after a three by
Richards (who was fired up after that call), the game
was tied 40-40. X had stormed out of their locker room
and taken Acadia by surprise, matching their intensity
and using their aggressiveness against them, taking them
out of the game. Galllimore was determined to be a force
on both ends of the floor, and in the 2nd
half he made sure his presence was felt. Drive after
drive, “and-1” after and-1” he was unstoppable. After
one 3 point play, Acadia’s coach Les Berry seemed to
completely lose focus as he started an ongoing dialogue
that resulted in his getting a technical and then X
capitalizing on the free throws and the possession,
going up 46-42 because of the Acadia coach’s mental
lapse.
Another few minutes and X has back to back turnovers,
then Richards goes coast to coast for the lay in, and
Acadia comes flying back with a three pointer. The score
is 61-59 for Acadia and there are just under 11 minutes
left to play in the game. As if on cue Gallimore steps
in for another three point play, this time earning the
points from his shot behind the arc. 62-60 X is ahead
with 9:33 left to go. It is here that X breaks away and
Acadia begins to break down. Upshaw has an outlet pass
to Neil for a huge dunk that gets the place up on its
feet and brings X up 70-66. Here X is at its best, with
interior passing and ball movement resulting in lay ups.
With 2:50 left to go Upshaw and Dwayne Johnson create
the play of the game and the beginning of the end for
Acadia. Upshaw throws a beautifully timed alley-oop to
Johnson who soars up in the air, seeing to defy the laws
of gravity with his hang time to have a thunderous dunk
and thrill the crowd. It is now 80-70 for X. the 10
point lead is cut down to 3 in a flash, but Acadia is
forced to foul and X steps up, hitting enough free
throws to send Acadia home defeated again with a final
score of 84-79. Santana was huge for Acadia as expected,
finishing with a very impressive 27 points, 11 rebounds,
7 assists and 4 steals in the loss again making his case
for league MVP. For X there was no shortage of people to
step up, but they were again led by Richards and
Gallimore who each scored 21 points while Macdonald
added another double-double with 15 and 10, Upshaw had
11 and 6 assists, and Johnson added another 6 assists as
well as 7 points, 2 of which were the games most
exciting. Apparently, Richards’ wallet is going to be 10
dollars lighter as there was a bet in practice last week
that Johnson wouldn’t get another dunk in a game. With
Upshaw supporting him the bet was placed and three days
later Dwayne proved all of his doubters wrong, Richards
included.
Coming off a weekend of outstanding play, guard Garry
Gallimore talks about playing when the team comes
together for a big win like these two, “. It's always
good when we can step on the court and compete together
and play for each other. When as a team we step on the
court with the same purpose and knowing that the guys on
the bench have our backs 100% it makes it easier to go
war and it's so much fun when we're out there together.
Dwayne always surprises me when he dunks because you
never expect him to do it so that was huge and I love
seeing him play with his heart and play to his
potential.” On his decision to be more aggressive
offensively in these past two games, “Well for me I have
to make a lot of sacrifices especially with such a young
team. I play to help them get confidence, and get
comfortable on the court so that means at times I have
give up the ball. But, I reviewed myself after the loss
in PEI and said it's time for me to get back to what I
do best and I really wanted to go out there and start
punishing guys. I wanted to get back to attacking the
opposition using my strength, speed and aggression to
keep them honest. Aggression was always there but I
stepped it up because now we are fighting from behind so
I am swinging with my back against the wall type thing”
Hopefully for X, Gallimore continues to feel that wall
behind him, pushing him forward.
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