Halifax, NS - The Championship Final of the 2000 CIAU Men's Final 8 was contested at the Halifax Metro Centre on Sunday afternoon, as the St. Francis Xavier X-Men tipped off against the Brandon Bobcats. X, seeded 3rd in the tournament, advanced to the Final with wins over 6th seeded McMaster, and 2nd ranked Lethbridge. Brandon, the Cinderella story, upset top-seeded Alberta, and 4th ranked Western to reach the big game. 

In another thriller, typical for CIAU basketball, the X-Men fought back to edge the Bobcats 61- 60. The teams exchanged baskets early on. Every time X scored, Brandon answered. With 5 minutes gone, and the game tied at 14, both teams saw key players in early foul trouble. X point guard Randy Nohr, and Brandon All Canadian Earnest Bell both picked up 2 quick fouls, and were forced to the bench. But X Coach Steve Konchalski rolled the dice, coming back with Nohr with 13 minutes still to play in the opening half.  The decision seemed to spark St. FX, who scored the game's next 7 points, to take a 21-14 lead. 

But the upset minded Cats answered the challenge, going on a 9-1 run to go up 23-22, with 9 minutes left in the half. Brandon extended the lead to 26-24, when Nohr picked up his 3rd foul with 6:31 left in the opening 20 minutes. This time, Coach K had no choice but to sit Nohr for the remainder of the half. With 4 minutes left, it was Bandon Coach Jerry Hemmings' turn to tempt fate, as he inserted Bell back into the Bobcat line-up. Bell stayed clean, but X went into the locker room ahead 35-33. Fred Perry led the X-Men with 12 first half points, while Jordan Croucher added 8. Greg Walker led a balanced Brandon attack with 8 points. Both teams hit 5 shots from beyond the arc. 

Nohr got back into the action early in the second half, but was not the factor that he had been in X's previous 2 games. He was passing up shots that he would normally take. That left it to Perry and Croucher to do most of the scoring. The AUAA champs extended their lead to 43-40 5 minutes in. After Perry laid one in, Brandon committed a shot clock violation. But X couldn't convert, and went cold. By the midway point of the second half, Brandon retook the lead, 48-47. They extended it to 51-47, when Nohr picked up his 4th foul with 9:38 on the clock, and was once again forced to the X bench. The rest wasn't long, however, as he returned to the game with 8:16 to play. It wasn't until there was 7:15 on the clock that Nohr attempted his first shot of the game, calmly draining a "3", to pull X to within 4, 55-51. 

But Saturday's hero, Josh Masters, who hit a half-court prayer as time expired to beat Western, responded with a long range bomb of his own, putting Brandon up 7. Earnest Bell added 2 of his own, and with 5:28 to play, the Cats led 60-51. Both teams had chances to score, but neither could capitalize, and at the 3:16 mark, Brandon held a 60-53 advantage. 

Perry hit a fall-away jumper with 2:11 to go, to cut the deficit to 5.An offensive foul on Charlton Weaselhead gave the X-Men another shot with 1:47 on the clock. Former Bobcat Dennie Oliver capitalized, and diminutive E.L. Adams stripped Weaselhead of the ball, calling a timeout as he fell to the floor. X was within 3, 60-57, with 1:13 remaining, and Brandon was showing signs of losing their composure. This also worked the Metro Centre crowd into a frenzy. However, Croucher missed a leaner, and Brandon grabbed the board, calling time, to leave each squad with a single timeout apiece. 

Once again, Brandon turned the ball over. Nohr drove the lane to make it 60-59, and the Cats were not able to bring the ball across half in 10 seconds. Nohr hit another drive, and X had their first lead in a while, 61-60, with 18.6 seconds to play. Brandon called their final timeout to set up the final shot, as 15.1 seconds remained. With the near-sellout crowd on their feet, All Canadian Bell missed a 10 foot leaning jumper, and X were the champs for the first time since 1993.