Huskies lose 109-105 OT thriller on Saturday to split weekend games vs Seahawks

(Halifax, NS)—The Saint Mary's Huskies defeated the Memorial Sea Hawks 86-78 Friday night in AUS men's basketball action.

Marquis Clayton (Halifax, NS) paced the Huskies with 23 points on 5 for 10 three-point shooting.

A 32-18 opening first quarter set the pace for the night, as Brian Rouse (Mississauga, ON) had 10 of his twenty points in the quarter for SMU.

A closer second quarter had SMU outscoring Memorial 21-20 and took a 53-38 lead at half.

An even 17-17 third quarter saw SMU hold their lead 70-55 after thirty minutes.

Memorial outscored SMU 23-16 in the final frame and SMU held on for the 86-78 victory.

Vasilije Curcic (Kragujevac, Serbia) led Memorial with 27 points and pulled down 12 rebounds.

Davion Parnsalu (Ajax, ON) chipped in 17 points for the 4-7 Sea Hawks (10pts), who sit two points up on the 4-5 Huskies (8pts).

Theon Reefer (Toronto, ON) added 16 points for SMU while teammate Kemar Alleyne (Scarborough, ON) finished with a double-double, good for 11 points and 10 rebounds.

SMU is six points up on last place 1-8 STFX.

SMU split two road games last week, a January 6th 80-64 win over Dal and a January 9th 104-82 loss against UPEI.

In game two on Saturday afternoon, down 18 points in the first quarter, the SMU Huskies battled back the entire game, taking a slim 84-82 lead with 3:44 left in the fourth on Marquis Clayton's (Halifax, NS) three point shot.

An eighty second 4-1 SMU run upped their lead 88-83 when Memorial used a 5-0 run in 29 seconds, taking an 89-88 lead with 1:14 left.

Two SMU layups put the Huskies in front 92-88 when Memorial had a 5-2 run in the final 21 seconds, tying the game 94-94 on a Davion Parnsalu (Ajax, ON) free-throw.

A five-minute overtime period saw Memorial outscore SMU 15-11 and hold on for the 109-105 win.

Parnsalu led all scorers with 36 points on 15 for 20 from the foul-line, including 7 for 8 in overtime while teammates Noel Moffatt (St. John's, NL) and Vasilije Curcic (Kragujevac, Serbia) had 17 points each.

Memorial lead 29-14 after the opening quarter and took a 49-36 halftime lead.

SMU used a 33-24 third quarter, trimming the Sea-Hawks lead 73-69.

The Huskies' 25-21 final frame sent the game to overtime 94-94.

Memorial improves to 5-7 (12 points) on the year.

Saint Mary's falls to 4-6 (8points) on the year with two games in hand over the Sea-Hawks, who sit in the sixth and final play-off position.

Clayton finished with 23 points for SMU while Theon Reefer (Toronto) had a double-double.