Halifax (U SPORTS) – Defensive player of the year David Muenkat propelled the STFX X-Men to a 107-98 win over the Queens Gaels in the third quarter-final game at the 2023 U SPORTS Men's Basketball Championship on Friday.
The STFX X-Men started hot, getting out to a quick 10-0 lead and forced the Queens Gaels to take an early timeout. Off the inbound from the timeout, STFX's Steven Levnaic intercepted an wayward Gaels pass before feeding a cutting David Muenkat for the slam. Setting the tone for the rest of the first half, the X-Men didn't look back. They ended the first quarter with a 32-12 lead.
X-Men head coach Tyrell Vernon commented, "I think we did a great job starting off just understanding personnel. We did a great job taking away things that we knew that they wanted to get into early on in the game."
Queens did not make it easy for themselves in the first half, shooting only 25% from the field and mismanaging the ball to allow STFX to have 6 steals. Brandon Aultman led the Gaels in the first half with 15 points. However, the X-Men closed out the first half up by a commanding 30 points.
Muenkat scored 20 points in the opening half and when reflecting on the X season to this point said, "It starts with buying into what Coach is trying to instill in us. From training camp everyone came in with a good attitude and a positive mindset and we've just bought in from the jump."
The X-Men needed to adjust to the Gaels game plan in the second half as Queen's returned to the court with a new fire and outscored the X-Men 24-14 in the third quater.
Trying to pull the game back to within reach, Queens still had a large deficit of 20 points to overcome in the final frame. Cole Syllas was strong on the boards through the first three quarters, pulling down 12 rebounds and adding 12 points.
The Gaels continued their strong second-half performance in the fourth, again outscoring the X-Men. With only a couple of minutes to go the lead for the X-Men was as little as seven points. Fans of the blue and white were the most nervous they had been all game in the final frame but helped lift their team with several Go X Go chants. STFX was able to outlast any potential comeback and went on to win the game 107-98.
Coach Vernon commented that the Gaels "went away from offense completely and tried to go downhill and go straight to the rim which put a lot of pressure on our defense and got us into bonus real fast and a lot of free throws and stoppages. We then couldn't get out and go into our transition case we were handling their transition so the pace of the game slowed completely down."
In the STFX victory U SPORTS second team All-Canadian Muenkat showed off his offensive side, racking up 27 points and adding 8 rebounds on the way to being named a Nike Top Performer. Syllas was named the Gaels Nike Top Performer with 18 points and 14 rebounds.
Deon Ejim had a double-double night for the X-Men with 19 points and 10 rebounds and Dondre Reddick contributed 16 points.
The win pushes STFX into the semifinal game at 8pm Saturday versus the winner of the Victoria-UPEI game. Queens drops to the consolation final at 2pm.
When asked what the X-Men need to bring into this next game Muenkat noted, "We need to bring a different level of intensity. It's the Final 8 and nobody came here to lose. We need to put together a full 40 minute game of basketball."