The Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team picked the wrong day to have a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Playing another pre-season game against an NCAA school, this time the University of California-Santa Barbara Gauchos, the Stingers looked sluggish, disorganized and unfocused. The end result was an 87-69 drubbing.
The game against Santa Barbara completely contrasted the Stingers’ previous match up  against Niagara University, when the team played high octane, energized basketball and only lost by a single basket.
“Our energy was the biggest (difference),” said Stingers’ forward James Clark. “Against Niagara we were competing the whole way through. In this game we pretty much just competed for three minutes and maybe a little bit in the second half, but other than that we were just flat. We just didn’t come out and play hard.”
The lack of energy coupled with some poor first half shooting took the Stingers out of the game early as they would go into halftime trailing 45-27. The Stingers would come out in the second half shooting the ball better, going 55 per cent from beyond the arc, but the early deficit was simply too much to overcome against such a talented team.
“We got a little better in the second half but it was just too little too late,” said Concordia coach John Dore. “But this is also a pretty good team. They have Orlando Johnson who’s projected to be picked late in the first round of the NBA Draft, and they’re just a good team.”
For Gauchos’ coach Bob Williams, the difference in the game came down to defence and execution.
“I thought we just played better,” said Williams. “We shot the ball pretty well but we were defending much better. (Concordia) was very physical and I liked how they executed but I just don’t think they shot the ball as well as they normally do.”
Concordia was also forced to deal with Greg Somogyi, Santa Barbara’s 7’3’’ center. “He changes the game,” said Williams. “Nobody inside feels comfortable shooting because they know Greg’s around. He blocks a lot of shots, he gets rebounds and he’s getting better offensively.”
Concordia’s tallest player was 6’7’’ center Zach Brisebois. Brisebois was saddled with the difficult task of matching up with Somogyi.
“It’s tough,” said Brisebois. “You’ve got to defend him before he catches the ball so he’s not in position to score. I’ve never had to deal with a guy that big in our league.”
Brisebois did a fair job guarding Somogyi, but the Hungarian giant was still able to amass 12 points and four offensive rebounds to go with four blocked shots, in only 14 minutes on the court.
On a positive note, the game did mark the return of Stingers’ star guard Kyle Desmarais, who missed the team’s first exhibition game due to an ankle injury.
Both Desmarais and coach Dore, though, acknowledged that he looked a little bit rusty and out of sync with his ankle still not feeling 100 per cent. Desmarais does expect to be back to full speed sometime in the next week or two.
Playing another pre-season game against an NCAA school, this time the University of California-Santa Barbara Gauchos, the Stingers looked sluggish, disorganized and unfocused. The end result was an 87-69 drubbing.
The game against Santa Barbara completely contrasted the Stingers’ previous match up  against Niagara University, when the team played high octane, energized basketball and only lost by a single basket.
“Our energy was the biggest (difference),” said Stingers’ forward James Clark. “Against Niagara we were competing the whole way through. In this game we pretty much just competed for three minutes and maybe a little bit in the second half, but other than that we were just flat. We just didn’t come out and play hard.”
The lack of energy coupled with some poor first half shooting took the Stingers out of the game early as they would go into halftime trailing 45-27. The Stingers would come out in the second half shooting the ball better, going 55 per cent from beyond the arc, but the early deficit was simply too much to overcome against such a talented team.
“We got a little better in the second half but it was just too little too late,” said Concordia coach John Dore. “But this is also a pretty good team. They have Orlando Johnson who’s projected to be picked late in the first round of the NBA Draft, and they’re just a good team.”
For Gauchos’ coach Bob Williams, the difference in the game came down to defence and execution.
“I thought we just played better,” said Williams. “We shot the ball pretty well but we were defending much better. (Concordia) was very physical and I liked how they executed but I just don’t think they shot the ball as well as they normally do.”
Concordia was also forced to deal with Greg Somogyi, Santa Barbara’s 7’3’’ center. “He changes the game,” said Williams. “Nobody inside feels comfortable shooting because they know Greg’s around. He blocks a lot of shots, he gets rebounds and he’s getting better offensively.”
Concordia’s tallest player was 6’7’’ center Zach Brisebois. Brisebois was saddled with the difficult task of matching up with Somogyi.
“It’s tough,” said Brisebois. “You’ve got to defend him before he catches the ball so he’s not in position to score. I’ve never had to deal with a guy that big in our league.”
Brisebois did a fair job guarding Somogyi, but the Hungarian giant was still able to amass 12 points and four offensive rebounds to go with four blocked shots, in only 14 minutes on the court.
On a positive note, the game did mark the return of Stingers’ star guard Kyle Desmarais, who missed the team’s first exhibition game due to an ankle injury.
Both Desmarais and coach Dore, though, acknowledged that he looked a little bit rusty and out of sync with his ankle still not feeling 100 per cent. Desmarais does expect to be back to full speed sometime in the next week or two.
