Axemen sweep weekend with buzzer beater vs Memorial

WOLFVILLE, N.S. - Acadia beat the buzzer and the Sea-Hawks in Sunday afternoon's matchup, taking the win 89-87.

The score stayed close throughout the first quarter with neither team having a clear advantage. Acadia held a five-point lead going into the second quarter, but the Sea-Hawks were looking equally as strong.

The score after one quarter was 20-15 for Acadia.

Memorial's Cole Long (St. Johns, Nfld.), who averaged the most points per game in the AUS entering the weekend (22.8), scored eight in the first quarter to lead all players. His teammate Deng Lual (St. Johns, Nfld.) grabbed seven rebounds in that span.

The second quarter was dominated by the Sea-Hawks, who put up 29 points while holding Acadia to just 14. Memorial led at the half by a score of 44-34.

Sea-Hawks guard Daniel Foo (St. Johns, Nfld.) and Cole Long both contributed 14 points in the first half, combining for 11 of 18 from the field and 4 of 6 from deep.

Acadia bounced back in the third quarter and outscored their opponents, but with the lead, the Sea-Hawks had built earlier in the game, Memorial remained on top by a score of 66-60.

Going into the fourth quarter, Axeman Brett Speedy (Fredericton, N.B.) had hit 5 of 6 of his three-point shots and totaled 17 points.

With 14.8 seconds left, Acadia found themselves down by 3 points. Acadia desperately needed a basket, and Marcus Upshaw (Burlington, Ont.) gave them one. The deep three-pointer tied it all up and the fans were on their feet.

Not 10 seconds later, Memorial drew a foul to go to the line twice, and Lual hit one. Lual finished the game with 20 points and 16 rebounds while only committing one foul. Lual was recognized as his team's Player of the Game.

With a mere four seconds remaining, it was do-or-die for the Axemen. Upshaw ran the ball up the court, drawing several defenders to him and leaving Speedy wide open at the top of the arch. Upshaw had the superb vision to find the open man across the court. Speedy got the three up just in time, and as the shot clock hit 0, the ball went in. The Axemen sprinted onto the court and the crowd exploded.

The final score favoured Acadia 89-87. It was a devastating loss for Memorial as they led for almost the entire game.

Speedy went 6 of 8 from three and had a total of 22 points, but his game-winner alone earned him the Subway Player of the Game award. It was a performance that fans will remember for a long time.

After the game, Speedy gave all the credit to his teammates.

"I owe everything to them. In practice all week and all season, they keep giving me the ball and tell me to shoot as much as I want. It really feels like a good team win and we have a good group of guys and we said from the start in September that it could be a different guy every single day, it could be a bench guy that doesn't play or could be a starter. We committed to that."

Speedy emphasized on the group's effort: "We had a good week of practice coming in and we knew where we needed to get too. [Memorial] beat us up there and they are a really good team. It was big for us and we knew the whole time that we wanted to get back to .500 and get back to a good place."

Acadia makes a trip to Dahousie on Wednesday with 4 points on the line, while Memorial returns home next weekend to host a double-header against Cape Breton University.

Provided by Theodore Giesen, Acadia Athletics Communications