Written by Josh Young
The McGill Redbirds upset the host Dalhousie Tigers, beating them 85-74 in overtime during the first day of the 12th Annual Rod & Joan Shoveller Memorial Basketball Tournament at Dalplex.
The first quarter started close with the score being 10-10 half-way into quarter. Haris Elezovic (Sherbrooke, QC) drove for a lay-up and Kevin Li (Beijing, China) hit a three-point shot in a minute to start a nine-point run for McGill. However, Malcolm Christie (Fredericton, NB) hit five points in the final minute with a three-pointer and jump shot to help Dal narrow the lead to 19-17.
The second half started with some sharp shooting. Li hit two three pointers for McGill while Christie and Caleb Sooley (Mount Pearl, NL) responded for Dal. The game was 26-25 three minutes into the quarter, but McGill started to take over at the free throw line. They went to the line 10 times and hit all but one. Dal meanwhile put up five points and were down 39-32 at half.
The Tigers battled back in the third quarter. Shamar Burrows (Nassau, Bahamas) hit a jump shot and two free-throws to get the Tigers started. His effort was followed up by two threes by Christie and Nginyu Ngala (Montreal, QC). But McGill wasn't making things easy with hitting nine points to keep their lead. Dal kept chipping away and finished the quarter with four straight points to get the score down to 51-50.
The fourth quarter was a back-and-forth battle that came down to the final minute. Joshua Koulamallah (Gatineau, QC) hit a free throw and Burrows hit two to get the game to 66-67 with 40 seconds to go. But Samuel Chaput (Longueuil, QC) hit a contested layup to stretch McGill's lead to 69-66 with 23 seconds left, part of his 12 points in the quarter.
Dal fouled and McGill couldn't sink all their chances giving the Tigers an opening. They were down 69-71 with no time left and Ngala sank a heavily contested three-point shot at the buzzer, sending the game to overtime.
The overtime started out as a free throw battle with McGill hitting their first five out of seven points on the line. The score was 78-74 until McGill's Sean Herscovitch (Montreal, QC) hit a three-point shot and drove for a layup to score five points in 30 seconds. McGill won the game 85-74.
Samuel Chaput was named the player of the game, scoring 25 points. Shamar Burrows led the way for the Tigers with 20 points, nine rebounds, three assists and four steals.
Other results
StFX X-Men won the first game of the tournament, beating the Saint Mary's Huskies 124-78. The X-Men started strong and had a 72-33 lead at the end of the first half and rode it to victory. David Muenkat (Brampton, ON) was the player of the game for StFX with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Dontae Mitchell (Vaughan, ON) led the way for Saint Mary's with 21 points.
The Concordia Stingers edged the Cape Breton Capers 89-82 during the second game of the day. It was tight with Cape Breton holding a narrow 69-68 lead going into the fourth quarter, but Concordia out scored Cape Breton 21-13 in the fourth to win. Alec Phaneuf (Gatineau, QC) was the player of the game with 22 points. Justus Peuser (Geisenheim, GER) with 18 points led the Capers.
The third game saw the Waterloo Warriors defeat the UPEI Panthers 82-70. The Warriors started the game strong leading 47-29 at the end of the first half. UPEI battled back in the second half outscoring the Warriors 41-35, but the first half deficit was too much to overcome. Stefan Djukic (Kitchener, ON) was the player of the game with 20 points. UPEI's Elijah Miller (Rexdale, ON) scored a game high 30 points.
With today's results. Here is the schedule for Friday:
1:00 p.m. Saint Mary's vs. CBU
3:00 p.m. UPEI vs. Dal
4:00 p.m. STFX vs. Concordia
5:00 p.m. Waterloo vs. McGill