AUS MVP Jimmy Dorsey Leads Cape Breton Past Dalhousie, Advancing to AUS Semi-Finals!

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NPH Top Performers

Cape Breton:

• Jimmy Dorsey – 23 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 22 minutes
• Al Alilovic – 16 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 32 minutes

 

Dalhousie:

• Robert Nortmann – 22 points, 6 rebounds, 34 minutes
• Casey Fox – 10 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 30 minutes

 

HALIFAX,NS--The AUS Men’s Basketball Championships are always filled with storylines, great performances and great games, and on the opening night it didn’t disappoint.

In the first game, the fourth seeded Cape Breton Capers defeated the fifth seeded Dalhousie Tigers 85-61, in a game that was close until the Capers took over in the fourth quarter.

Cape Breton started the game with solid shooting from Jimmy Dorsey and Al Alilovic giving the Tigers everything they could handle on defence.  The Capers finished the first quarter on a 14-1 run, giving them control of the game.  The second quarter had the Tigers starting to find their offensive feet and scoring at a better rate as Robert Nortmann decided to take over the load scoring 16 points going into the halftime break.

Foul trouble for both teams started to cause problems as Dalhousie had to sit both Ritchie Kanza and Stephen Lopez, both picking up three fouls in the first half. On the other side Jimmy Dorsey, the AUS MVP had also picked up three fouls forcing him to sit on the bench.

The third quarter had the same story as both teams were able to hold the other to minimal scoring in the quarter.

Dalhousie had started to build up a bit of momentum and had closed the once large lead from 12 to six.  Stephen Lopez had his fourth foul called and was forced to sit again on the bench.  Cape Breton started to build up their lead again, leading by 10 going into the final quarter.

In the final frame the wheels had come off for Dalhousie as they were unable to make any shots, allowing Cape Breton to go on a 21-2 run led by Jimmy Dorsey.  At that point the game was over and the Capers cruised to victory.

NPH spoke to Cape Breton head coach Thomas Gillespie about the game and his team’s performance.

“It was certainly a tough battle, and I think the score is indicative of the first part of the game when it was 58-45 after three quarters and the tempo kind of favoured Dal. Our bench really stepped up and we really got an explosion in the beginning of the fourth quarter and we just kept rolling, in that sense it was great for our team, because we had a whole bunch of guys contributing.”

Jimmy Dorsey, who earned AUS MVP the night before, showed why he was deserving of the award. Dorsey talked about the game playing with foul trouble.

“It was a little shaky because you can’t really be aggressive and do what you want to do but I feel like my team helped me and I feel like everybody one through twelve stepped up and played their part and we got the win”

The Tigers were unable to muster any offensive attack and made too many turnovers, and Cape Breton was able to capitalize on those mistakes.

Cape Breton will advance to play St. Francis Xavier on Saturday night at 6pm (AST).  The winner of that game will be one of the two representing teams from the AUS.  Dalhousie’s Robert Nortmann was the only senior on the team who has finished his eligibility playing for the Tigers.