Axemen season ends with loss to UPEI in semifinals

HALIFAX, N.S. – The second-seeded UPEI Panthers routed the third-seeded Acadia Axemen 87-66 in Saturday's men's semifinal at the Scotiabank Centre.

The Panthers came out firing on all cylinders right from the tip jumping out to an 11-0 lead in the first 3:47.

Acadia couldn't do much to stop the scorching hot UPEI shooters as the Panthers increased their lead to 21 by the end of the first quarter (27-6), despite Tyler Scott (25.1 PPG in the regular season) being held scoreless on 0-5 shooting.

UPEI's defensive intensity matched their offensive output holding Acadia to 1-19 shooting (5.3 per cent) in the first 10 minutes.

The second quarter featured much of the same as Amin Suleman, Dut Dut and Lorenzo Parker scored a combined 33 points in the first half on 13-21 shooting.

The Acadia shooters were held to 6-39 from the field in the first half including 2-21 from downtown.

Coach Duffy lit a fire under his team at the half and they responded with four straight three-pointers early in the third from Kyle Aresenault, Ben Miller and Nick De Palma, cutting the Panthers' lead to 15 midway through the quarter.

However, UPEI responded with a 15-4 run to end the third, pushing their lead back up to 27 heading into the final frame.

Acadia continued to press in the fourth quarter, trying to make a run to cut into the deficit, but the Panthers just proved to be too much.

The Axemen were able to hold UPEI to just ten points in the fourth on 4-18 shooting but the lead was too great to recover from.

Fueled by Dut Dut's six-point, eight-rebound fourth quarter, the Panthers were able to hold on for the win.

Subway players of the game were Erik Nissen of the Axemen (13 points, 13 rebounds) and UPEI's Dut Dut (21 points, 19 rebounds, five assists and two steals).

UPEI will move on to face the top-seeded Dalhousie Tigers in Sunday's Subway AUS Men's Basketball Championship final set for 4:30p.m. at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax.