The Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team was issued their first loss of the regular season against their rivals the McGill Redmen on Saturday afternoon by a score of 69-68. Concordia now has a record of three wins and one loss.
The game started at a fast pace with both teams playing with a high tempo. However, the Stingers did not shoot the ball well in the first
quarter resulting to a 22-10 lead for the Redmen. McGill’s Christian McCue started the game with the hot hand and was deadly from behind the arc, hitting two three-pointers.
During the second quarter, the Stingers played a very scrappy game getting to the free-throw line and looking for their big men, notably Kafil Eyitayo, to provide them with the scoring punch they were missing in the first 10 minutes. Concordia clawed its way back to a 36-30 deficit at halftime.
“We’re trying to find an answer but we just got to get hungrier and got to have that sense of urgency,” said Stingers guard Jerome Blake about the team’s poor first-half performance.
As the second half started, that sense of urgency overcame the Stingers. They started off on fire thanks to an assertive block by Eyitayo that lead to a transition layup and a foul by Evens Laroche.
At around midway in the quarter, Eyitayo fell to the ground clutching his leg and was helped off the court by his teammates. He would later return in the fourth quarter and when asked about his leg he said, “It was my calves, I just cramped up.”
In spite of Eyitayo’s injury, the aggressive Stingers’ defense paired with their strong offense led them to dominate the third quarter by a score of 24-11 giving them a 54-47 advantage entering the final quarter.
That was when things started to go south, especially in the last three minutes of the game. The Stingers lost the advantage as the Redmen, led by Vincent Dufort’s 25 points, charged back and ended up winning the game in the final seconds.
“We let it get away from us,” said Stingers head coach John Dore about the loss. “We just lost our composure a little bit but we’ll get that up.”
“We missed so many open shots, open layups and everything,” Eyitayo said. “At least it shows us we can be so much better.”
at PEPS. The game is scheduled for 8 p.m., following the women’s game. Rouge et Or TV will stream the game live online.
