Stingers hang tough against top teams

The Concordia Stingers women’s basketball team has not had a lot to be happy about early in their regular season, but they hope their strong play in the Reebok Invitational women’s basketball tournament will lead to a strong second half run like it did a year ago, when they turned an 0-4 start into an 8-8 season.
The Stingers fought back to win their opening game against the Carleton Ravens, who lead the OUA Eastern Division.
Midway through the third quarter, the Stingers were down by 13, but that was when the Stingers kicked their game into gear.
“We all told ourselves we’re not losing this game,” said Stingers guard Krystle Douglas who was named to the tournament all-star team after leading Concordia in scoring in all three games. “We should not be losing this game. It was our game to win and we proved it.”
“The fact that it was our first game in the tournament meant we had a little more oomph,” said guard Melissa Campbell. “At halftime, our locker room was pumping. It was loud and had a bunch of positive energy.”
The Stingers followed up a three-point shot by Tanya Perry that made the score 49-36 with nine straight points – the start of a 30-5 Stingers run that lasted through the rest of the third quarter and first half of the fourth.
In that 30-5 run, Concordia also had a string of 16 straight points and took the lead for good when Yasmin Jean-Philippe hit a shot with 9:16 remaining in the fourth quarter to make it 58-56 Concordia. That was followed by a Campbell steal and layup. Campbell then hit two straight 3-point shots 50 seconds apart to extend the Stingers lead to 66-56. The game eventually ended 73-63.
The game was Campbell’s best as a Stinger. She played four years at the University of Prince Edward Island and was the UPEI rookie of the year and MVP during her time at the school.
She had 21 points against Carleton and 16 against the No. 5 Alberta Pandas, who the Stingers lost to in the semi-final. Alberta would eventually win the tournament by defeating the No. 2 Regina Cougars.
“She’s a natural scorer,” said Stingers head coach Keith Pruden. “She didn’t play last year because she had a serious ankle injury and she’s starting to feel like herself again and starting to feel more comfortable with me. She’s an all-star player and she showed it throughout the tournament.”
The Stingers are hoping their performance in the tournament – beating a team leading their division, and losing close battles to teams ranked No. 5 (Alberta by 15) and No. 8 (Memorial by eight) – will carry over into their conference play when they play the McGill Martlets in a home-and-home series starting Jan. 16.
Concordia and McGill are tied for the basement in the QSSF with two points (McGill is 1-3, Concordia 1-5) and battling for the fourth and final playoff spot in the five team Quebec conference.
“I think we have a lot more confidence because we played well. Our confidence should be high because we played well and they are ranked and we’re not,” said Douglas.
“We’re finally coming together as a team, we’re finally working together.”
“We should bring the momentum into the second half because of the way we played at the tournament,” said Campbell.