Last Saturday, the Stingers faced the UQAM Citadins at their home gym and suffered a heartbreaking two-point overtime defeat by a score of 83-81.
After a convincing 79-48 win against last year’s first-place team, Laval, in Quebec City Friday night, the team was emotionally spent.
The game started with a two-point lead by UQAM, thanks to Citadin Marjolaine Gauthier-Théorêt. Quickly, Stinger Kendra Carrie evened the score. Gauthier-Théorêt took a hard hit under the basket and made one out of the two free throws. Stinger Magalie Beaulieu scored two baskets and Anne-Marie Prophete scored one to give Concordia the lead at 8-3.
UQAM’s Jessica Bibeau-Côté sank a three-pointer and Gauthier-Théorêt matched her teammates’ three points by forcing a foul after a basket, which gave UQAM the lead at 9-8.
Halfway into the first quarter, good defence by Stingers’ Tina Mpondani wasn’t enough and UQAM’s Irline Noël was left wide open under the basket, netting two more points. ConU took a charging foul and UQAM got another opportunity for two more points. Mpondani scored a basket after a foul granted the Stingers possession. Back and forth baskets from both teams finished the quarter with Concordia trailing 17-14.
The second quarter started with a foul on UQAM and they scored on one out of the two shots made by Gauthier-Théorêt. Both teams struggled to secure rebounds, mainly when a player would go for a three-pointer. The Stingers seemed to be getting frustrated when a foul was called in UQAM’s favour and Michelle Auger-Bellemare made both of her free throws. The referees continued to call fouls on the Stingers, giving UQAM’s Bibeau-Côté the opportunity to score a three-pointer, making the score 23-14. Kaylah Barrett forced Noël to take a foul, but missed her first free throw. She made up for it by stealing the ball from Gauthier-Théorêt and running down the court with her opponents a few strides behind her.
With seven minutes left in the half, the score was 23-17. The referees seemed to be trying to make up for fouls by giving the Stingers possession and Mpondani twirled to the basket, adding two more points. Back and forth baskets from both teams almost evened the score out, with three minutes left, at 23-21. Prophete and Carrie tried their hardest to equalize with two more baskets, but UQAM’s Karine Boudrias got two more three pointers and teammate Auger-Bellemare two baskets before the end of the half, leaving the score at 36-30.
Beaulieu saw Barrett open, running to the basket and a quick two points were granted to ConU. Prophete, holding nothing back, grabbed a rebound and charged to the basket, forcing a foul. UQAM’s Bibeau-Côté scored three more points, but Jean-Philippe matched her three points with a basket and a free throw with four minutes left. UQAM missed two opportunities under the basket and Carrie netted a beautiful three-pointer to end the third quarter behind by four points.
In the final quarter, Barrett and Carrie each got a basket to tie up the game at 52. With impressive back and forth three-pointers by both teams, the fourth quarter ended exactly the way it started, in a tie; but this time at 72 points apiece.
A five-minute overtime showed how exhausted both teams were, and a last effort from the Stingers couldn’t quite match the fresher team. Though they managed to keep the score close, it was three foul shots that eventually gave UQAM the 83-81 win.
Commenting on the big win the night before against Laval, head coach Keith Pruden said that if anything, that ended up being somewhat of a disadvantage to the Stingers. As much as they were happy about the win, they were “emotionally drained” and getting back late made it difficult to execute everything that they knew had to be done. One of the problems was that UQAM is a very “physical team” and they “made mistakes and just couldn’t adjust to the team.” They “let them take shots that they like to take.”
The Stingers’ next game is their home opener Friday, Nov. 26. Tip-off is at 8 p.m. The first 250 Concordia students will receive a maroon and gold t-shirt which grants free admission to all 2010-2011 regular season Concordia Stingers games.
