Game recap by: Kirk Jessome
(Halifax, NS) – Day two of the Shoveller Memorial Invitational Basketball Tournament saw the MSVU Mystics facing off against the UPEI Panthers. After getting down early, the Panthers fought back with a huge third quarter to take the lead and come away with the 77-70 win.
Bradley Fuller (Wolfville, NS) picked up right where he left off last night, opening the game with an and-one, and a shot from long range.
The Panthers shooting was streaky to start the game, but when the long shots weren't falling, they were rebounding well early and taking advantage of points in the paint.
The Mystics held a slight advantage at 21-18 heading into the second quarter.
MSVU came out aggressively on the defensive end to start the second, forcing turnovers and tough shots from the Panthers. Ben Kidston (Dartmouth, NS) took advantage of the extra possessions by heating up from long range on back-to-back threes.
The steals led to transition baskets for the Mystics as they increased their lead to nine halfway through the second.
The Panthers were relentless slashing to the lane and were making it count from the line, but the outside shots weren't falling for them, shooting only 25% from the field in the half.
The long shots were still falling for the Mystics however, with Liam Mitchell (Halifax, NS) and Wesley Bennett (Baltimore, Maryland) picking up threes to increase the lead to 12.
Heading into the half the Mystics were up 42-31 on the Panthers.
The Panthers came out firing to start the second half with two quick shots from deep, and D'Adrian Allen (Toronto, ON) picking up the old school three-point play, cutting the lead down to just three.
Allen was turning into a force on the boards in the third, converting offensive rebounds to extra possessions for the Panthers. The Panthers took their first lead since the early minutes on a jump shot from Marcus Cusinato (Kew, AUS), making it 51-49.
The Pantehrs outscored the Mystics 25-9 in the quarter, and heading into the fourth they had the lead at 56-51.
Turnovers were an issue for the Mystics early in the fourth, giving up five in the first five minutes, but the shots were still falling when they got them up.
On the other end, D'Adrian Allen was still finishing in the paint and coming up with big rebounds for the Panthers.
The turnovers piled up for the Mystics in the final minutes, and Allen took advantage, putting the game out of reach on a big dunk with a minute to go.
The UPEI Panthers took the win 77-70.
Bradley Fuller finished with 18 points and eight rebounds for MSVU while D'Adrian Allen had a 24 point, 13 rebound double-double in this one, earning them the player of the game nods respectively.
The Mystics will face off against Acadia tomorrow at 9:00am in the 7th place game, while UPEI will take on Concordia at 11:00 for 5th place.