Panthers erase 16-point halftime deficit to overcome X-Men
HALIFAX, NS (March 2, 2025) – It's been 22 years in the making, but the UPEI Panthers are once again the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) champs.
Playing in front of a packed and lively crowd at Halifax's Scotiabank Centre, the No. 2 seed Panthers fought their way to an 84-79 victory over the top-ranked STFX X-Men in the final of the 2025 Bell AUS Men's Basketball Championship on Sunday afternoon. It is their first AUS title since winning it in the 2002-03 season.
"It's been a long time coming for me. This win wasn't for only us, it's for all the guys I have played with the last five years," said Panthers guard, and First Team All-Star Kamari Scott, who was named the Subway Player of the Game after scoring 24 points in the win. "It was my third time here at the championship and I told the guys: 'I need to win one before I leave, man'."
It was just two years ago that the Panthers were embarrassed by the X-Men in the championship game 104-54 – a game Scott played in and remembers.
"That loss still haunts me to this day," Scott admitted. "I told the guys, I harped to them about it - I told them that I needed this one badly."
Next up for UPEI is the 2025 U SPORTS Men's Basketball National Championship in Vancouver, March 14-26, hosted by the UBC Thunderbirds.
Their last trip to Nationals came back in 2023 when STFX hosted the event at the Scotiabank Centre where they finished the weekend 0-2.
Call it championship jitters, but both teams came out sluggish in the first quarter and could not get their shots to fall.
While the baskets were not coming for UPEI, they were drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line, but they could not take advantage, going just 2-for-10 from the charity stripe in the opening quarter.
In the second quarter, STFX took control of the wheel – going on lengthy 26-4 run that ate up nearly seven minutes.
Again, it's not like UPEI were not without their chances, but they still could not get anything to fall – from deep or from inside the key. Despite grabbing an impressive 16 offensive rebounds, the Panthers shot just 20 percent in the first half on 8-of-39 shooting.
STFX was considerably more efficient, going 13-of-26 from the field in the first 20 minutes, and took a sizable 44-28 lead into the dressing room at halftime.
AUS MVP and First Team All-Star D.J. Jackson scored 11 points in the opening half, while UPEI was led by Scott's eight points.
UPEI head coach Darrell Glenn was named the 2025 AUS Men's Basketball Coach of the Year earlier in the week. Whatever insight he gave his team during the break worked as the Panthers came out in the third a different team.
Now it was their turn to go on a substantial run, starting the quarter with an 20-4 stretch to tie the game at 48-48 and send the UPEI fans in attendance to their feet.
"We went into halftime and we were down, but coach just told us that we have to believe," Scott said when asked about being down 16 points at half.
Jackson got X back on track with a pair of layups to put his team back in front with just over two minutes left in the third frame.
The fourth quarter started with STFX leading 58-54, but UPEI cut that margin to 66-65 nearly halfway through the period when Daniel Gonzalez Longarela scored from in close.
UPEI took their final lead when Tarrance Booker laid the ball in with 3:41 left to put the Panthers up 69-68.
With the score now 74-70, STFX's Matt Pennell drained a three-point shot that made the X-Men bench jump to their feet.
That celebration was short-lived as UPEI's Kyree Thompson raced down the court and hit a three of his own to go up 77-73. Thompson finished the game with 20 points and was named to the Championship All-Star team.
From then on, it was a free throw shooting contest as X started committing fouls to stop the clock. Unlike earlier in the game when UPEI could not sink a free throw, Scott made good on 5-of-6 in the final 13 seconds of the game to ice the win.
Jackson was named to the Championship All-Star Team after recording his second-straight 33-point game. Gatluak James added eight points and 11 rebounds.
2025 Bell AUS Men's Basketball Championship Awards
Tournament MVP
Kamari Scott/UPEI Panthers
Tournament All-Stars
Kamari Scott/UPEI Panthers
Kyree Thompson/UPEI Panthers
D.J. Jackson/STFX X-Men
Jeff Ngandu/STFX X-Men
Shakael Pryce/Cape Breton University Capers