Sooley leads Tigers to win over UPEI

For the second time in two days, the Dalhousie Tigers went to overtime in the Rod and Joan Shoveller Memorial Basketball Tournament, this time beating UPEI 72-70 at Dalplex.

The Tigers got to an early 18-15 lead in the first quarter. The first half of the quarter was close with UPEI up 13-11 courtesy of six points from Elijah Miller (Rexdale, ON) and five from Kamari Scott (Malton, ON). But Dal pulled away as the quarter continued scoring seven straight points from four different scorers to take the lead.

UPEI didn't stay down for long, Daren Clarke (Ancaster, ON) hit a jump shot and Oliver St-Pierre (Saint-Hyacinthe, QC) hit a three to take a two-point lead 30 seconds into the quarter. It was a back-and-forth battle after that.  Ben Shoveller (Arnprior, ON) hit a layup putting up his first points of the tournament named after his grandparents. With the score 32-31 for the Panthers, Malcolm Christie (Fredericton, NB) hit a buzzer beater three point shot to give the Tigers a narrow 34-32 lead at the end of the half.

The Tigers started strong in the third quarter. After Miller tied it, Dal scored three straight buckets to take a 40-34 lead. But Cameron Brown (Scarborough, ON) hit a three-point shot and made a layup within a minute to stop the run. Dal kept pushing, Christie hit another three and Dal scored 10 points to give them a 53-49 heading into the fourth quarter.

Nginyu Ngala (Montreal, QC) had a brilliant fourth quarter by hitting a three pointer three times and a free throw to provide the only offence for the Tigers. UPEI kept battling and were able to generate offence by driving into the paint to hit layups or go to the line. Kamari Scott scored 8 points including hitting two free throws with 27 seconds left to tie the game and send it to overtime.

In overtime, UPEI's Luca Cameron (Bedford, NS) and Dal's Caleb Sooley (Mount Pearl, NL) traded three pointers to start. UPEI got into foul trouble and the Tigers Jayden Parker (Milton, ON) went to the line twice and hit three out of four shots. However, Daren Clarke hit a layup to tie the game at 69 with 1:15 left. Dal quickly answered as Sooley grabbed a loose ball and hit a layup to take the lead. Scott and Sooley traded free throws to give Dal a 72-70 lead with three seconds left. UPEI took one last desperation shot but missed and the Tigers won.

Caleb Sooley was the player of the game with 17 points. Elijah Miller led the Panthers with 20 points.

Other results:

Consolation Semifinal 1: Cape Breton 97-87 Saint Mary's

The first game of the day saw the Cape Breton Capers beat the Saint Mary's Huskies 97-87. Saint Mary's was up 74-68 heading into the fourth quarter, but Cape Breton outscored them 29-13 with 11 points from Chris Ruta (Calgary, AB). Tyson Cato (Ajax, ON) led the way for the Capers all game with 26 points eight rebounds and two assists. Jayrell Diggs (East Preston, NS) with 32 points and Dontae Mitchell (Vaughan, ON) with 25 points did most of the scoring for the Huskies.

Championship semifinal 1: STFX 78-71 Concordia

The first championship semifinal saw the STFX X-Men outlast the Concordia Stingers, 78-71. Both teams had early foul trouble in this game with the X-Men going to the line 10 times in the first quarter followed by the Stingers shooting free throws 12 times in the second quarter. The X-Men were able to keep the game close in the first half, trailing the Stingers by 5 after 20 minutes.

Concordia ran out of gas in the third quarter, not able to match the 23 points put up by a balanced X-Men offence. An even fourth quarter gave STFX the win. One bright spot for the Stingers was Sami Jahan who had a game high 30 points and was able to snag 10 rebounds on the way to being named the player of the game.

Championship semifinal 2: Waterloo 46-69 McGill

The final game of the night was a low-scoring affair between McGill and Waterloo resulting in McGill heading to the championship game. McGill got out to an early 27-17 lead in the first quarter and never looked back, outscoring Waterloo in all four quarters. The Redbirds Samuel Chaput put on a show for the fans that stuck around, putting up a game high 32 points. McGill's Sean Herscovitch was strong on the boards, pulling in 9 rounds.

Day Three Schedule:

Due to changes to some flights home, there has been an adjustment to the schedule for Saturday.

9am UPEI vs SMU

11am Waterloo vs Concordia (bronze medal game)

1pm Dalhousie vs Cape Breton

3pm McGill vs STFX (championship game)