Capers advance to AUS semifinals

The league’s most valuable player also added five assists, six rebounds and eight steals to help CBU advance to today’s semifinal match against St. FX.

“We were in a tough battle for the first three quarters,” said Capers head coach Thom Gillespie after the game.

“It was 58-48 and we had some foul trouble at different points, but got some great hustle off the bench to help us maintain and then in the fourth quarter we just erupted.”

In the game played at the Halifax Metro Centre, the Capers led by a 25-12 count after the first quarter and 42-31 at the half.

They were outscored 17-16 by Dalhousie in the third quarter before putting the game away with a 27-13 fourth quarter scoring edge.

“I don’t know exactly what the run was we went on, but it was around 15-18 points. We literally had an offensive explosion and it was really charged by our defence. Our guys really kept the intensity up. There were turnovers, we knocked down threes. When anyone gets momentum like that they are tough to stop.”

Al Alilovic added 16 points and seven rebounds to the Capers’ winning totals, followed by 10 from Jamie Glasgow.

Dalhousie’s top shooter was Robert Nortman who scored 22 points, and Casey Fox added 10.

The Capers will now meet their longtime rivals from Antigonish today at 6 p.m., with a spot in Sunday’s final on the line.

In the regular season, the X-Men took three of four games, but Gillespie said his team will have no trouble finding motivation against their longtime rivals.

“We just have to keep them composed and confident. We had a great game against them in January and the guys are looking forward to it.”