The Concordia Stingers women’s basketball team took to the court twice this past week with games against McGill and UQÀM. The team had an away game to the Martlets on Thursday night and returned home to face the Citadins on Saturday afternoon.
The Stingers went to McGill full of confidence after a highly successful Concordia-Reebok tournament over the winter break. In the tournament, they defeated the CIS number one and number five ranked teams. These results earned Concordia the number eight spot in the country.
Against the Martlets, it was a far different Concordia team. McGill was hot shooting from the behind-the-ark, sinking eight of their 15 three-point attempts compared to the Stingers’ one successful three pointer. A strong second half secured a 75-44 win for the Martlets.
“McGill came out exactly as I expected,” said Stingers head coach Keith Pruden. “They played hard, they played well, they were very aggressive and we just appeared to be surprised.”
The first quarter was closely contested for seven of the quarter’s 10 minutes. With the Stingers up by a basket, McGill went on an 8-0 scoring run in the final three minutes to secure a six point advantage after one.
In the second quarter, Concordia tried to regain momentum, but to no avail. With 2:30 to play in the quarter, the game was a one possession game as McGill’s lead was slashed down to three points. The Martlets once again got hot in the final minutes and ended up taking a 12 point lead with them into the halftime break. McGill was up 37-25.
The third quarter squashed any hopes of a Stingers comeback victory. For the first four minutes of the frame, both teams added two baskets each to their totals. Concordia would not add any more for the remainder of the quarter. The Martlets scored 18 unanswered points and grabbed a 30 point lead going into the final quarter.
“It didn’t really matter who we put on the floor,” said Pruden. “We were getting very flat performances.”
Both teams traded baskets in the fourth quarter. McGill ended Concordia’s miserable outing, winning by a final score of 75-44.
“We shot the ball extremely poorly,” Pruden said following the game. “McGill was playing a very aggressive defence. If you’re flat on one end of the court, you can’t expect to be intense at the other end of it. We were not taking care of the ball and we weren’t making sure we were getting good shots.”
Two days later, the Stingers played host to RSEQ’s first place team, the UQÀM Citadins. Concordia won the game after a great fourth quarter performance. With six and a half minutes left in the game, UQÀM had a five point lead. The maroon and gold’s strong defence denied the Citadins any more baskets. The Stingers went on a 15-0 run to end the game and win 67-57.
With the victory on Saturday, Concordia regained first place in the RSEQ conference. The team now has five wins and two losses in their seven games played this season.
Concordia will continue its three-game home stretch next Saturday, Jan. 19 when they host the last place and winless Bishop’s Gaiters. The game will start at 2 p.m. at Concordia Gymnasium.
