St. Francis Xavier holds on for CIS Bronze, Despite Monster Game from UFV’s Kyle Grewal

St. FX Takes Bronze Medal Over UFV
St. FX Takes Bronze Medal Over UFV

NPH Top Performers

St. FX

  • Jeremy Dunn – 28 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, 29 minutes
  • Terry Thomas – 13 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assist, 34 minutes
  • Shane Coupland – 13 points, 7 rebounds, 24 minutes

Fraser Valley

  • Kyle Grewal – 35 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists, 33 minutes
  • Joel Friesen – 11 points, 32 minutes
  • James York – 11 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, 33 minutes

Halifax, NS–Fraser Valley was hungry to take some hardware back to Abbotsford, British Columbia but St. FX had other ideas as the X-Men defeated the Cascades 89-86, earning CIS Bronze medals.

The Cascades came out with their do-it-all forward Kyle Grewal leading the way, opening the scoring with the hoop and the harm.  Fraser Valley would continue their consistent play until their big man Mike James picked up his second foul, opening up the lane for Jeremy Dunn.

Dunn was able to have a dominant first quarter scoring ten points.  After one quarter, the score had both teams tied at 16.

While the first frame had both teams trading baskets, the first half of the second quarter belonged to Kyle Grewal and the Cascades.  Grewal came out of the break hungrier than before scoring eight points. With James York adding a three, Fraser Valley extended their lead to seven.

The X-Men and Jeremy Dunn had seen enough. With 6:45 left in the first half, St. FX went on a 24-8 run to end the quarter.  In that run the X-Men had production from a number of players and took a 46-35 lead into the locker room.

The Jeremy Dunn show continued through the third quarter as he displayed his three point range going 2/2.

While the Cascades kept battling, the X-Men were still out in front by a large number, at one point in the third quarter they led by 18.  Grewal would not be discouraged and dropped 12 points and Joel Friesen added seven in the quarter to keep their team in it.  The Cascades trailed by 11 with one quarter to play.

Midway through the fourth quarter, the X-Men led by 15.  The Cascades would continue to battle and with a number of players slowly chipping away at the X-Men lead.  With 1:36 remaining in the game the score had St. FX leading by 5.

Grewal hit a difficult shot to bring the deficit to within one possession.  Fraser Valley had to foul and sent Jeremy Dunn to the line who converted on both free throws, making it a five point game.  Grewal continued to battle and hit the huge triple.

Terry Thomas spoke to NPH after the victory, “The game was close, both teams were hustling and it’s very hard to wake up on a Sunday to play this type of game or any game or any game on Sunday.”

“We just came out and tried to dictate our tempo and in the fourth quarter in a game that was very intense.  We were just trying to keep our composure.”

Fraser Valley would be unable to convert on the buzzer beater three, giving St. FX the victory and the bronze medal.

Coach Konchalski spoke after the victory “I told the players before the game that they had to play for pride. A bronze medal is still a medal.”

Despite the loss Fraser Valley played hard throughout the tournament and opened a lot of eyes towards their program.

 

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.