Elijah Miller erupts for 29 points, leads Panthers to AUS finals with win over Dalhousie

By Thomas Becker

When the UPEI Panthers and Dalhousie Tigers met in the AUS finals last season, the Tigers wouldn't allow Elijah Miller to beat them. 

This time, they had no choice, as the league MVP simply took over in Saturday night's semifinal and propelled his team to a second straight finals berth after a convincing 80-65 win. 

Miller finished with a game-high 29 points with four assists, four rebounds and two steals. Fifth-year veteran Dakelle Brooks scored 15, while Kamari Scott had 14 points and 12 rebounds for the double-double. 

"I'm just being patient and letting the game come to me," Miller said. "Last year, I kind of forced it a little bit, but having my teammates score early helped open things up for myself."

After the game, Panthers head coach Darrell Glenn spoke about his team's fight and overcoming a perennial champion in the Tigers. 

"They're a championship program and no lead is secure against them," Glenn said. "It was a tough first half. I know we had the lead, but we weren't playing as well as we wanted to. But we stuck it out and I'm proud of our perseverance." 

Brooks started off the scoring in an entertaining first quarter, with both teams going back and forth early on. It was also a defensive grind, as neither team had a lead larger than three.

However, the Panthers carried a 15-14 lead into the second quarter, with Scott leading the way with five points and four rebounds.

The Panthers opened the second with a jumper from Miller and a layup from Sam Chisholm to extend the lead to 19-14. 

After an and-one from Brooks and a transition lay-in from Isaiah Ankra pushed the lead to 30-23, Miller showed why he's the best player in the conference, as the point guard drilled back-to-back three-pointers to make it 36-25.

But the Tigers, as they so often do, stormed back. They closed the quarter on a 10-0 run and went into the break feeling good about themselves after trimming the deficit to just one, 36-35. Joshua Koulamallah had five of those points to keep his team in it.

The Panthers came out flying in the third quarter and outscored their opponent 18-5 in first five minutes. Miller scored 10 straight points and picked apart the Tigers with an array of long range shots and attacks at the rim before Brooks drilled a three-pointer to put them ahead 54-40.

Brooks continued to play well and extended the lead to 60-43 behind a pair of jumpers before his team took a 66-48 advantage into the fourth. The Panthers outscored the defending champions 30-13 in the frame and held them to just 19 per cent shooting.

Dalhousie's Nginyu Ngala provided a late spark for the Tigers with eight points in the fourth quarter as the Tigers outscored the Panthers 17-14. But it wasn't nearly enough as UPEI booked their ticket to the final with the 80-65 win.

The Panthers will now face the top-seeded St. FX X-Men Sunday at 4 p.m. The two teams split the season series two games apiece.