Any time you have two top 10 teams facing off against each other in a rivalry game in front of 2,000 loud fans, 1,975 of them wearing white, it's going to be a fun game. When one of those teams takes a big lead but the other comes back and forces overtime, it's even more exciting. And when the first five extra minutes solve nothing, and you go to a second OT? Well now you're really watching something.
The chart at right illustrates what I'm talking about. At one point, the X-Men were up by 18; at another, the Capers were up by 13. From 2:22 left in the fourth to the end of the game, it was always a two-possession game, and only occasionally was it not a one-possession game (the black dots more or less dominate both overtime periods).
(Thanks to Krista McKenna from St. F-X for supplying the play-by-play necessary to make that chart. She actually sent the files along right after the game ended last night, but it was stuck in my spam filter for some reason and didn't make it into the article until now.)
So yes, it was a fun game. But don't take just my (simplistic, graphical, and somewhat-clichéd) word for it, take that of the many CIS followers who added their thoughts in real time on the series of Twitter tubes. At first it was mainly just the schools involved, but...you'll see:
Pregame
@basketballbuzz: What up #CIS heads. Big game about to pop-off we got (#10)@CapersMensBB vs. (#4) @XMenBasketball.
@gocapersgo: Showtime. CAPERS-X. Round 2
@StFXAthletics: Showtime. It's a whiteout at the Oland Centre, getting ready for X-Men vs CBU basketball, Go X Go!!
@basketballbuzz: Packed house, lots of noise and a great rivalry between these two squads. Lets hope we get a great game.
First half
@basketballbuzz: Man these two teams are going at it, even @stfxcoachk is getting into early.
@gocapersgo: CAPERS trail X-Men 21-17 after one quarter
@AUS_SUA: WOW...Hearing there's a standing room only crowd of 2000 and counting for the men's game on now.
@basketballbuzz: The wheels are falling off for the #8 Cape Breton Capers. 34-23 for #4 St.FX X-men
@StFXAthletics: 43-34 for X-Men over CBU at half-time
@gocapersgo: CAPERS struggling from the floor, trail X-Men 43-34 at halftime.
Second half
@basketballbuzz: Cape Breton comes out swinging to open the 3rd Q - cuts the lead down to 45-40
@gocapersgo: Phil Nkrumah for 3 and the CAPERS take a 53-51 lead over X in AUS men's basketball play.
@StFXAthletics: MB at end of 3rd CBU leads 64-59.
@basketballbuzz: At end of 3rd Capers lead the X-Men 64-59. Pretty impressive turn around considering they were down 18 points at one point.
@gocapersgo: 73-65 CBU over X with 6:08 to play in men's basketball action in Antigonish.
@StFXAthletics: MB CBU leads 76-67.
@basketballbuzz: The athletic CBU Capers making a huge statement on the road tonight. I don't know how the #CIS coaches rank this team as 8th in the country?
@gocapersgo: 1:36 to go. CAPERS 80, X 76
@gocapersgo: 1:18. CBU 80, X 79
@AUS_SUA: Hey @donnovanbennett @tim_micallef ...Court surf to this game...http://www.ssncanada.ca/game/2309/
@gocapersgo: 82-80 X with 37 seconds left
@basketballbuzz: X-men have the ball with 3 ticks left on the clock. Game tied @ 82 all.
@scott_morrison: X - Cape tied with 3 seconds left. X ball, time out. Cape had challenged look around rim and missed.Tbear as decoy or let him get 2 bounces?
@StFXAthletics: MB game goes into overtime
@cbpost_sports: I guess the #AUS game at #STFX with the #Capers men has been a back-and-fourth barn burner.
First overtime
@gocapersgo: X takes an 89-84 lead in OT
@basketballbuzz: 89-84 for the X-Men in overtime. Home crowd propelling the @XMenBasketball
@Tsbiet: great game, some fine #CIS ball right here, the crowd is awesome!
@StFXAthletics: MB X leads 92-88.
@gocapersgo: X leads CBU 92-90 with 1:13 to play
@gocapersgo: Jimmy Dorsey knots it at 92-92 with under 30 seconds to play
@StFXAthletics: MB tied 92-92. Goes into another overtime.
@TheCISBlog: Hey, another overtime! @Decker_Brian should step away from the newspaper production and turn on the hoops.
@scott_morrison: Double OT X and Cape
Second overtime
@gocapersgo: It's a hot one. Double OT and coaches and players keeping Nkrumah out of the fans.
@Sean_ONeill34: To all the #CIS fans who are snobbish to @AUS_SUA (sometimes justifiably). Give me a better basketball rivalry than #CBU #STFX. Dare ya
@AUS_SUA: C'mon @donnovanbennett @tim_micallef ...show us some courtsurfin' love...double OT!!!!...http://www.ssncanada.ca/game/2309/
@StFXAthletics: MB CBU leads 95-92.
@gocapersgo: Dorsey starting to take over, scores five straight to give CBU a [97-92] lead
@basketballbuzz: Charlie Spurr drops a 3 pointer and the x-men steal the ball to take lead 98-97.
@kingperry: X-men vs. Cape Breton [is] pretty awesome right now!
@gocapersgo: Big shots bring X back. 99-98 CBU with :53 to play
@StFXAthletics: MB 12 seconds left of double overtime.
@basketballbuzz: With 12 secs left CBU's Paris Carter goes to the line and knocks down 2 huge FT to give the @CapersMensBB a 101-98 lead.
@StFXAthletics: MB CBU 101-98 final score.
@gocapersgo: CAPERS take it 101-98 over the X-Men
@basketballbuzz: 101-98 Final Score. Huge Huge victory for the @CapersMensBB over the @XMenBasketball.
@kingperry: Cape Breton Capers just swiped a 2OT win! Jeez. Their AUS lead is growing!
@BrendanMorley: Just witnessed one of the greatest basketball games St.FX has seen in a long time! Amazing! Double overtime!
@Sean_ONeill: How #StFX was ranked higher after losing in Sydney is a joke.
@basketballbuzz: If you missed this one, we can guarantee that you won't see a better #CIS ball game this season.
More than an hour later
@Decker_Brian: would have loved to [watch the game]. What did I miss?
Thanks for posting that last tweet. It looks good on me, the supposed national basketball contributor, to be completely out of the loop on the best game of the season. Damn newspaper job...
ReplyDeleteWhat can I say? It was funny.
ReplyDelete