Concordia men rally to secure home victory over UQAM

Led by the strong play of guards Kyle Desmarais and Decee Krah, the Concordia Stingers overcame a poor start on route to a 94-87 come-from-behind victory.

“I give our guys a lot of credit,” said Stingers head coach John Dore. “We played a little bit harder than them, played good defence, made shots difficult for them and got some good shots for ourselves down the stretch. We played smart at the end of the game.”

While this was indeed an accurate description of the Stingers play in the fourth quarter, it was definitely not the case in the first three,as the Stingers were out-rebounded and often out-hustled by the Citadins.

However, despite these shortcomings, the home team was able to keep things close throughout the game thanks to their consistent play on defence and the particularly strong play of Stingers forward James Clark. Clark scored 14 points, grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and was the major reason why the Stingers stayed afloat early on despite being outplayed.

Thanks to him, the Stingers only trailed 45-43 at halftime and were only behind 68-64 heading into the fourth quarter, when they finally took control of the game.

In the game’s final, and ultimately most pivotal quarter, the Stingers took full advantage of the small size of their gym by employing a full-court press that suffocated UQAM ball handlers and forced seven Citadins turnovers. The Citadins turned the ball over a total of 19 times in the game.

UQAM’s mistakes kickstarted Concordia’s offence. The Stingers were able to get out in transition early and often in the fourth quarter and as a result, experienced a great deal of success, often running the length of the floor for quick and easy baskets.

The Stingers’ increased tempo could not only be attributed to the turnovers they created. According to Desmarais, the team had recently made it a priority to run more on offence.

“We’ve been on working on it [fast-break offence] for the past two weeks,” he said . “As soon as the ball goes in the basket, or even if they miss, we get the ball and we go. We try and push the ball. We don’t want to let them set up their defence.”

Fourth-year guard Krah cited the team’s emphasis on getting out into the open court as the main reason behind the Stingers fourth-quarter surge.

“I thought we executed out fast-break offence really well,” said Krah.

As he has been all season long, Desmarais was an integral part of his team’s success on Friday night, registering 26 points, five rebounds, six assists as well as five steals.

“I like to be versatile,” said Desmarais. “I like to impact the game in so many different ways. I don’t just want to score. I want to distribute the ball, be a good defender, get steals and rebound the ball. That way, no one can say that I can’t be effective if I’m not scoring.”

With the win, the Stingers improve to 8-4 (5-1 at home) and are now only one game behind the Laval Rouge-et-Or for first place in the RSEQ standings.

Coincidentally, the Stingers will face off against Laval at home this Friday, Feb. 11 at 6 p.m.

For stats and junk: http://www.sportetudiant-stats.com/universitaire/basketball-m/stats/1011/m27.htm

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