Panthers make it two in a row over Huskies

Sunday afternoon the Panthers lit up in the first quarter leading 31-18 over the Saint Mary Huskies and cruised to a 92-77 win.

Cooper leads the way in Sunday’s win as UPEI men open season 2-0

Topics :
    UPEI Panthers , Atlantic University Sport , Sports Centre , Saint Mary

A career game from guard Jonathan Cooper led the UPEI Panthers to a 92-77 win Sunday over the Saint Mary’s Huskies, helping the club get off to a 2-0 start in  Atlantic University Sport men’s basketball play.

At the UPEI Sports Centre, the fifth-year basketball player put up NBA-type numbers, scoring 30 points — including five three-pointers — to go along with 11 rebounds, three assists and three steals.

“That’s probably the best game of my career,” he said.

First-year coach Tim Kendrick has given his players freedom to be creative on offence, and Cooper said that has done wonders for confidence.

“Coach has given me the confidence to shoot,” Cooper said. “He just said Coops, go out and shoot. Be confident and don't look back. He said never look back at me. I’m never going to pull you for a missed shot. You always take good shots. So today I just came in and said you know what? I’m relaxed. I’m comfortable. Let 'em fly and luckily they went in.”

Point guard Terrance Brown scored 22 points and added five assists for the Panthers, while Donathan Moss and Manock Lual both scored 12.

UPEI came out flying, finishing the first quarter up 31-18.

After that, the game was very even the rest of the way.

“I thought today, in the first half especially, we really took it to them hard at both ends,” said Kendrick. “They weren’t expecting us to come out that difficult, I don’t think.”

Huskies' star Tory Fasset went 10-for-14 from the field to finish with 23 points and 10 rebounds.

Riley Halpin added 18 in the loss for Saint Mary’s.

“We’re trying to win championships,” Kendrick said. “One of the things as a team that wants to win championships . . . you win that first one at home, you’ve got to take care of that next one. That’s got to be an automatic win.”