Axemen finish 6th at annual Shoveller

HALIFAX, N.S. - The Axemen basketball team picked up a win and two losses at the annual Rod Shoveller Tournament hosted by Dalhousie. The win came at the hands of the Mount Saint Vincent Mystics while Acadia loss to Concordia and UQAM.

Concordia 73 vs Acadia 61

Concordia booked their ticket to the semifinals against Dalhousie as they came away with a scrappy 73-61 victory over the Acadia Axemen. Both teams got off to incredibly cold starts from the field, and the game got off to a sluggish start as Acadia led 26-24 at halftime.

First-year forward Schneiders Suffrard had a game-high 23 points in the victory for Concordia, while big man Michael Fosu added nine points and 11 boards. Shaq Smith had a team-high 19 points on 8-17 shooting in the loss for Acadia, while Erik Nissen finished just short of a double-double with ten points and nine rebounds.

With the loss, Acadia will now square off against the Mount Saint Vincent Mystics at 3:00pm on Saturday, while the win means that Concordia will meet the Dalhousie Tigers in the semifinal.

Acadia 78 MSVU 72

The Axemen survived a late scare by the surging Mystics as they came away with the 78-72 victory on the second day of competition at the Shoveller. The trio of Nick DePalma, Erik Nissen and Kyle Arseneault combined for 51 points on the day as a balanced attack led the Axemen to victory.

After scoring just nine points in the opening quarter, the Mystics stuck around all game and had a monster 28 point fourth quarter, but it wasn't enough to fully overcome the lead that the Axemen had built by that point.

Emad Khalek led the Mystics with 16 points, five rebounds and four assists while Brayden White added 16 points of his own to go along with six boards.
Acadia will play their final game of the tournament tomorrow at 11:00am against UQAM, while the Mystics will take on the StFX X-Men in the early game at 9:00am.

UQAM 103 Acadia 89

It was an especially high-scoring affair as the UQAM Citadins came away with a 103-89 victory against the Acadia Axemen. The win came despite a huge day from Acadia's Nick DePalma, who had a game-high 29 points after converting on 8 of his 14 attempts from beyond the arc.

After leading by just three points after the first quarter, the Citadins used a big second quarter to open up the lead to 55-39 at halftime. The Axemen had a late charge in the fourth quarter, but it simply wasn't enough to overcome the lead built by UQAM.

Kewyn Blain led the charge offensively for the Citadins with 22 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Greishe Clerjuste went 6-8 from the field for 18 points to go along with five rebounds.

The Axemen open up the second half of the season tied in first place with a 5-2 record and head to Memorial for two games this coming weekend of January 8-10, 2016.