X-Men claim CIS bronze

HALIFAX -- Bronze wasn't what Jeremy Dunn and the St. Francis Xavier X-Men came to Halifax to win, but they'll take it.

Dunn punched home a team-high 28 points and hit three key free throws in the final 17 seconds to help the Antigonish, N.S. school win its first national men's basketball medal in eight years, knocking off the upstart University of Fraser Valley Cascades 89-86 in a tightly contested bronze medal game Sunday at the Halifax Metro Centre.

"Coming out on Sunday and getting a win in either game is a great feeling," a native of nearby Wolfville, N.S.

"Apart from not being in the game we wanted to be in, we had a great season, finished off with a win, finished off with a bronze medal, so it feels awesome."

The three-time national champion X-Men ranked second nationally for most of the first half of the season, were the sixth seed when the CIS Final 8 tournament time rolled around, knocking off No. 3 Concordia on Friday before losing to Alberta in Saturday's semifinal.

Legendary coach Steve Konchalski, in his 37th season at the X-Men helm, said the third-place game was all about playing for pride.

"A bronze medal is still a medal. Winning two games at nationals is still something to be proud of. And you know something, that was our third win of the season," he said. "And in my 27 years at St. FX, I've only had one other team that's won 30 games, and that was the national championship team in 2001 that won 33 games."

The victory spoiled a marvelous performance by Fraser Valley's fourth-year forward Kyle Grewal, who scored 35 points and hauled in 14 rebounds, nearly singlehandedly pulling the Cascades back into a contest that saw them trailing 82-65 in the fourth quarter.

Grewal had 10 points down the stretch, but individual stats meant little to the Surrey, B.C. native who had to settle for fourth place in the school's first trip to nationals in its sixth season affiliated with Canadian Interuniversity Sport.

"We're happy with what we've done," said a disappointed Grewal, whose 27 points on Friday spelled the end of Lakehead's championship dreams.

"No one expected us to make nationals. We made nationals. But our goal was not just to make it. We wanted to be successful here. And we came up short. We finished what we were ranked going into this tournament."

Fraser Valley took an early first-quarter lead in this one, but led by Dunn, the X-Men began to slowly pull away in the second quarter, taking a 46-35 lead into halftime. Dunn scored a quick five points to extend the St. FX led to 18, though the Cascades would chip away at it and cut their deficit to 11 after three. Once again in the fourth X began to pull away, but Grewal had the answer, making it 86-83 to cap an 18-4 Fraser Valley run.

But with one last chance to tie, trailing by three with 3.4 seconds on the clock, Grewal couldn't handle Sheldon Bjorgaard's inbound pass, which was picked off by X's Tyrell Vernon, ending the contest.

Acadia 90, Ryerson 83: In the fifth-place game, Anthony Ashe hit a pair of free throws in the dying seconds of the fourth to send the game to overtime and the Axemen prevailed by seven in the extra period.

Owen Klassen had 21 points to lead Acadia, who on Saturday knocked Lakehead out of the consolation side of the tournament. Anthony Sears had 20 for Acadia, while Ryerson was led by Aaron Best's game-high 30.