(HALIFAX, N.S.)--The Saint Mary's Huskies defeated the Acadia Axemen 78-73 on Wednesday night in AUS men's basketball action from the Homburg Centre.
 
In a nail bitter of an affair, Saint Mary's led 74-71 when an Acadia lay up trimmed the lead to one, 74-73 with 21 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
 
A pair of Axemen fouls gave SMU the 78-73 win, who went 20 for 24 from the free throw-line.
 
The game started off with a 14-13 first quarter Axemen lead and they added to their cushion in the second frame, 23-22 for the 37-35 halftime lead.
 
A 19-15 third quarter spurt put Acadia ahead 56-50 after 30 minutes. The Huskies out-fought the Axemen 28-17 in the final frame for the 78-73 win.
 
Acadia drops to 4-13 on the year and are four points out from Memorial for the sixth and final playoff spot.
 
Ben Miller (Winnipeg, MB) paced Acadia with 16 points, Sean Stoqua (Ottawa, Ont.) had 15, and Gianmarco Luciani (Maple, Ont.) had 10 points off the Axemen bench.
 
Saint Mary's improves to 11-6 (30) points and sits in third place, two points behind 12-4 UNB and four back of 13-4 UPEI. SMU is up two points on 9-8 Dal.
 
Toronto's Ryan Augustine led all scorers with 20 points on the night, while teammates Achuil Lual (Ottawa, Ont.) and Marquis Clayton (Halifax, N.S.) had 14 and 13 points respectively for Saint Mary's.
 
Also scoring for the Huskies were Aaron Fisher (Savannah, Georgia) with eight points, Osman Barrie (Ottawa, Ont.) and Kadeem Scott (Toronto, Ont.) seven points apiece and Kadeem Thompson (Toronto, Ont.) had five points.
 
SMU returns to action Saturday, February, 14th when they travel to CBU (24 points) for a 8 pm game worth four points in the standings, while the Axemen travel to Memorial for two four point games and concluding the season at home against the first place UPEI Panthers for an additional four points.

Provided by SMU Sports Information