Stingers can’t mount a comeback this time

The Concordia Stingers women’s basketball team finished their regular season with a very respectable 3-3 record in their last six, including a win over the first place Laval Rouge et Or and a weekend sweep of the McGill Martlets to qualify for the playoffs.
Unfortunately for them, they were unable to make history repeat itself as they fell behind by 13 at halftime and were unable to cut the gap completely in their QSSF semi-final against Laval.
“Everybody wants to win if you’re halfway serious about what you do,” said Stingers head coach Keith Pruden, following the game that ended their season. “It’s full of highs and lows and you have to learn how to deal with both.”
The Stingers were down by 18 points midway through the third quarter, and managed to get the gap down to as little as seven before falling by the eventual final score of 74-65.
“I don’t think they played that much better than we did,” Pruden said. “But in the first half we had some breakdowns offensively and defensively on things we said we were going to do. They got into a scoring rhythm early and once they get into a rhythm, they are a pretty good team.”
Concordia went up and down the floor with the Rouge et Or, but ultimately fell behind when they couldn’t take advantage of their opportunities, and Laval did.
“In the first half of the game we took some bad shots, but we also took some really good shots that just didn’t go in,” Pruden said.
Laval forward Marie-Michelle Genois scored her team’s first eight points and had 14 in the first quarter. Concordia then started to double and triple team her in the paint and she only ended up with 20 points.
Krystle Douglas led Concordia offensively in what was her final game as a Stinger. Douglas led all scorers with 24 points. Felon Harris had 12 off the bench for Concordia.
Now, the focus for Pruden and the remaining Stingers already turns to next season. Pruden has an eye on recruiting now, and says he’s looking for a post player as well as a point guard.
“We’re losing three point guards, and we have other people who could move the ball. We need someone who could start at point guard two years from now, three years from now in the pipeline,” he said.
Pruden says he’s now in the period where he has to wait for recruits to make up their minds and looks back at this season with mixed emotions.
“We had a lot of potential this season, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say I think we underachieved,” he said. “There were a lot of games we lost that we should have won, but there were a lot of good things about this season. We improved, we won two big games when we needed to get in the playoffs, we beat ranked teams and we had close games against great teams.”
“Should we have done better? Yeah, but it was a good season. I’m pleased with the team.”

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