CAPERS roll to convincing win over Sea-Hawks

SYDNEY – The Cape Breton University CAPERS (6-3) cruised to a 106-80 victory over the Memorial Sea-Hawks (7-3) Saturday afternoon in Atlantic University Sport (AUS) men's basketball action at Sullivan Fieldhouse.

Coming off their first home loss of the conference campaign, the CAPERS jumped to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, sparked by five early points from Stefan Anisko (Mississauga, ON).

The Sea-Hawks answered, trimming the deficit to 21-15 after a basket from beyond the arc from Josh Francis (Calgary, AB).

Down the stretch of the opening 10 minutes, Liai Tong (St. John's, NL) brought the crowd to its feet with an alley-oop dunk.

The CAPERS led 27-17 after the first quarter.

Early in the second quarter, the home team – ignited by consecutive three-pointers from Anisko and a traditional three-point play from Shakael Pryce (Pickering, ON) – the CAPERS advantage expanded to 17 points.

Led by the dynamic duo of Flynn Boardman-Raffet (London, England) and Norm Burry (Grafton, NB), the visitors battled and sliced the margin to 12 points as the second stanza unfolded.

The CAPERS answered in the final minutes before halftime, with the exclamation point coming on a deep three-point heave from Pryce at the second-quarter buzzer.

CBU led 53-34 heading to the locker room.

With Pryce leading the way, the CAPERS busted open the contest in the third quarter, with their lead mushrooming to as many as 32 points.

In the fourth quarter, the Sea-Hawks could get no closer than 20 points as the CAPERS secured the split in the weekend series.

Pryce, the Subway player of the game, finished with a game-high 30 points and nine assists, along with four rebounds and two steals. Veteran forward Tyson Cato (St. Catharines, ON) contributed 24 points, seven rebounds and three assists, while Anisko and Tong collected 16 and 14 points, respectively.

Burry led the Sea-Hawks with 20 points, while chipping in eight rebounds and two assists. Boardman-Raffet finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists, while Wyatt Vanhooren (Calgary, AB) – off the bench – drained four three-pointers as part of a 13-point effort.

The teams have wrapped the 2024 portion of their AUS regular season schedules.

Both will return to the court on Friday, Jan. 10, with the CAPERS visiting the UNB Reds in Fredericton, while the Sea-Hawks will face the Acadia Axemen in Wolfville.

Game time for both match-ups is 8 p.m.