The men’s basketball team lost 97-91 in their season opener against Laval on Friday, but were 79-67 winners against the UQAM Citadins Saturday night.
UQAM started out strong with a three-pointer by Éric Côté-Kougnima and then two more points, taking a five-point lead off the bat. Stinger Kyle Desmarais was fouled at the three-point line and made two out of the three free throws.
Côté-Kougnima made another basket and took the foul giving him three more points in total. With James Clark playing strong defence and Desmarais scoring another basket, the Stingers tried to fend off the Citadins, but after five minutes of play, the score was 13-7 for UQAM. After a basket by Evens Laroche, UQAM started to struggle against the Stingers’ strong defence, led by Clark, who used his whole body to prevent several attempts under the basket. Côté-Kougnima used his frustration to get another basket, while Laroche challenged a UQAM player by smacking the ball right out of his hands.
Concordia’s efforts weren’t enough to give them the lead. The first quarter ended with the Stingers behind by ten points at 19-9.
Jean-Andre Moussignac came off the bench strong in the second quarter with a basket just before UQAM’s Alexandre Bernard sank two points in the Stingers’ face. Two baskets and a free throw later, UQAM widened their lead on Concordia. Moussignac delivered again when Clark got the ball back to Moussignac, who forced a foul under the basket and made one foul shot to bring the score up to 26-14. Morgan Tajfel came off the Stingers bench with untapped energy and managed to hold strong on defence against the Citadins. After the Stingers’ time-out, Clark demonstrated his ability on offence with two points. Decee Krah made his way to the basket with impressive moves, which gave Frank Fiola the opportunity to make the three-pointer. Krah then passed to Tajfel, who dished it back to Fiola for another two points. Clark forced a foul and made both free throws, which brought the score to 32-26 with 20 seconds left in the first half. Two good foul shots by Desmarais finished the half with Concordia trailing 34-28.
Clark made the first basket of the second half, which was then challenged by two more points from UQAM. Krah made a beautiful three-pointer and Taylor Garner sank another soon after. With back and forth three-pointers and some hard defensive hits from both teams, the final score of the third quarter left ConU not far behind with 53-51.
The Stingers took the lead in the fourth quarter when Desmarais made a beautiful three-pointer. The Citadins got desperate and started to foul left and right, giving the Stingers many opportunities for free throws. Desmarais did not scare easily as he charged to the basket and took a hit from behind that sent him flying across the court. A technical foul was called against UQAM and Desmarais made one of two free throws. With less than two minutes left in the game, the Stingers held the lead at 69-64.
A bad call by the referees that awarded UQAM the ball left the Stingers frustrated, but Laroche stole the ball from Philippe Tamba, who then fouled him. A steal by Desmarais with less than a minute on the clock gave him room to dunk, which the Citadins watched in awe. Desmarais made six foul shots to close the game and the Stingers walked away with a 79-67 victory.
Head coach John Dore had strong praise for all of his players, saying that a lot of the defence went unnoticed, but strong rebounds from Tajfel and Garner and good blocks helped win the game, as well as the fearless offence. He also said they may have “started poorly and played with some lethargy, but all the strength and support came off the bench.”
The Stingers’ next game is their home opener against McGill at Concordia Gymnasium Friday, Nov. 26. Game time is 6 p.m.