In a battle of two Top 10 teams the ST.FX X-Men used a well balanced attack to defeat the Concordia Stingers 94-78 and earn their second-straight Rod Shoveller Memorial championship.
The small Antigonish school led 18-16 after the first quarter and broke-open a tight game by outscoring Concordia 33-19 after a long 20 minute delay (lights/electrical) in the second quarter and went to the locker room comfortably ahead at 51-35.
The Stingers struggled with the X-Men’s pressure and trailed by 19 points in the third-quarter before using a 7-0 run in the final period to cut the margin to single digits with 3:00 minutes left at 85-76.
High flyer Terry Thomas threw down three absurd dunks to fire-up the X crowd and was active on the glass with 24 points and 14 rebounds.
Will Donkoh torched the Stingers with 22 points and Shane Coupland added 20 for the X-Men.
The Stingers offense was led by Kyle Desmarais with 21 points highlighted by two spectacular dunks, a backdoor alley-oop and a one hand flush in transition. Evens Laroche had a double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds.
Bol Kong returned to action after sitting out the semi-final game, the coaching staff is monitoring his progress slowly. Kong picked his spots and finished with 9 points, all coming in the second-half. He added 3 assists and was in the mix on the boards.
X-Men are now 15-0 and will resume conference play on Jan 6/7 at the Oland Center against the UNB Varsity Reds.
Concordia finishes the tournament with a 2-1 record and will resume RSEQ league play on the road against UQAM on January 4th.
2011 Shoveller Tournament All-Stars
Warren Ward (Ottawa)
Will Donkoh (StFX)
Kyle Desmarais (Concordia)
Manok Lual (UPEI)
Ritchie Kanza Mata (DAL)
Results:
Thursday, December 29
UPEI 78 vs. ACA 64
StFX 74 vs. Ottawa 71
DAL 114 vs. RMC 50
Concordia 90 vs. SMU 87
Friday, December 30
Ottawa 76 vs. ACA 73
SMU 96 vs. RMC 45
StFX 78 vs. UPEI 69
Concordia 79 vs. DAL 75
Saturday, December 31
ACA 115 vs. RMC 27
Ottawa 92 vs. SMU 80
StFX 94 vs. Concordia 74 (Championship game)
DAL 74 vs. UPEI 66 (Bronze medal game)
Game Notes
ST.FX Head Coach Steve Konchalski earned his 799 career victory and is closing in on 800 wins. Konchalski surpassed Jerry Hemmings with 736 wins in November 2009 to become all-time leader. By comparison the other Coach K, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, became the NCAA’s all-time leader with 903 victories when he surpassed his mentor Bob Knight.
