X-Men trample Huskies by 36

Courtesy The Chronicle Herald

The undefeated St. Francis Xavier X-Men were as good as they’ve been all year Wednesday night. The Saint Mary’s Huskies weren’t.

The CIS No. 3 X-Men trampled the struggling Huskies 95-59 at The Tower, pushing their AUS men’s basketball record to 11-0 and avenging the only loss on their schedule since October — a five-point setback in the final of the Rod Shoveller Memorial tournament at Dalhousie. The X-Men are 14-1 around that loss.

Charlie Spurr had 18 points, all on three-pointers, and Halifax products Christian Upshaw and Will Silver added 17 and 16. Terrence Taylor collected 10 as every St. F.X. player in uniform contributed points.

Joey Haywood had 24 and Demitri Harris 15 for the Huskies (8-5), who have lost three straight, including a 27-point home drubbing on Saturday against Cape Breton.

St. F.X. led 26-13 at the end of the first quarter and 47-24 at the half. Ottawa’s Spurr, a transfer from the CCAA, made four of his triples in a four-minute span in the third quarter as the X-Men extended their lead to 75-39.

A pair of threes by Silver in the fourth quarter had the X-Men up by 40. St. F.X. shot 14-for-26 from three-point range and feasted on 21 SMU turnovers.

"It was focus more than anything," said Upshaw. "Tonight we just came out ready to play. We stuck to the game-plan and paid attention to detail. But I know the next time we play SMU is going to be a totally different game."

Konchalski, with career win No. 747, said his team was outstanding at both ends of the floor.

"And Charlie Spurr got going," he said. "He was in a little bit of a slump and tonight he shot himself out of it.

"We played with energy for 40 minutes. That was probably the best 40 minutes we played this year. We had very few lapses."

Haywood thought the Huskies needed to play harder.

"We’ve got to come out here and be hungry," he said. "The last two games we’ve been struggling a little bit and we’ve been taking it over into the next game. We’ve just got to forget that and move on."