Memorial Sea-Hawks guard Davion Parnsalu had just five points Friday night, but two of them proved to be the Sea-Hawks biggest of the 2017-18 Atlantic University Sport season.
Parnsalu hit a jump shot with less than three seconds remaining as the Sea-Hawks defeated the Saint Mary’s Huskies 72-70 in their quarter-final game in the AUS championship tournament in Halifax.
The shot and the win extended the collegiate basketball career of Parnsalu, a graduating fifth-year player, and the season for the Sea-Hawks, who will take on the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds in a semifinal contest 9 p.m. today at the Scotiabank Centre.
Daniel Gordon led Memorial with 25 points, while Subway player of the game Nathan Barker had 23 points and 10 rebounds.
The result could certainly be described as an upset. The Sea-Hawks, 5-15 in the regular season, are the sixth and lowest seed in the tourney. Saint Mary’s went 14-6 — including two wins over Memorial last weekend in St. John’s — and was just a standings point away from claiming the first-round playoff berth that went to UNB.
The other-quarter-final could also said to have featured an upset as the St. Francis Xavier X-Men (9-11) downed the Acadia Axemen (15-5) 91-86.
The X-Men face the top-ranked Dalhousie Tigers in today’s other semifinal.
Twitter: @telysports
