The Concordia Stingers women’s basketball team had their season and home opener on Friday, against the UQAM Citadins. They looked to get their season off on the right foot as they played a team that did not make the playoffs a year ago.
The team was coming off a rather shaky preseason where they only managed to get one win in nine contests. Unfortunately the ladies were unable to get in the win column to open the season and dropped the game 58-39.
As the game started out, the Stingers looked good, but the Citadins jumped out to an 8-2 lead very early in the contest, but the Stingers responded with a 6-0 run of their own to tie the game up. The Citadins looked to pressure the Stingers allnight by applying pressure by way of the full court press, whenever they had a chance to and it resulted in a lot of Stingers turnovers. Anytime the Stingers looked to gain an advantage or grab the lead the Citadins always had an answer, either a basket of their own or gaining a turnover. This all culminated in a 17-6 run for the Citadins. The biggest bright spot for the Stingers in the first half was the play of Ebony Morris who recorded six steals in eight minutes and 10 steals total in the game. The Stingers went into the halftime break down by ten, with the score being 27-17.
The Stingers came out of the half time break and look to get the game within their grasps. They changed their style moving from a zone defense to a more pressure style defense in man. The Stingers cut the lead to five with some great play by Melanie Larocque who netted eight straight points for the Stingers. Larocque had a game high 14 points for the Stingers. Citadins forward Mireille Karangwa led them with 14 points in just 21 minutes, and she just could not be stopped.
“We played just well enough to lose to a team that didn’t make the playoffs last year,” said Stingers head coach Keith Pruden. “We need to protect the ball.” The Stingers turned the ball over 32 times in the game compared to just 20 by their counterpart. Also the Stingers were dominated on the offensive glass, which led to many second chance opportunities for the Citadins. “Our defense was inconsistent, they made us disorganized and we are capable of a better performance than we showed,” Pruden said.
The Stingers also had another game on Saturday against rival McGill. Concordia was unable to obtain their first victory of the season losing 73-55. Larocque led the way for the Stinger’s with 18 points and Fanie Ruel led the team with 10 rebounds.
Up next for the Stinger’s are back to back games on Friday night, they travel to Laval then back home to play McGill once again.
