After beating Memorial University 95-64 in the first game of their annual Concordia Nike Tournament on Friday night, the Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team fell 77-65 to the Laurentian Voyageurs in the championship game on Saturday afternoon.
The Stingers started the first quarter by winning the tip-off and striking first on two foul shots by guard Adam Chmielewski. Laurentian responded with their first two points that were also foul shots. Both teams then started to play defensively as there were a couple of turnovers by both teams.
The Stingers were the first team to get a three-pointer by forward Mukiya Post. Laurentian then capitalized on few mistakes by the Stingers with a couple of three-pointers by guard Alex Ratte. The Stingers got a three-pointer of their own by guard Jean-Andre Moussignac. The Voyageurs led the Stingers 16-12 after the first quarter.
The second quarter started off with Concordia going on a small run of scoring, which led them ahead in the game. The Stingers played great defence as Laurentian did not to get their first basket until the 6:06 mark of the quarter, which was a three-pointer by guard Ryan Bennett. The Stingers then fouled Ratte, who scored both foul shots. The game was tied at 27 apiece at half time.
Concordia got the first points in the third quarter with a wide open basket by Stingers’ forward Mike Fosu. However, Laurentian then went on an 8-0 run to regain the lead. The Stingers responded as they went on a 4-0 run but that ended quickly after they missed a couple of foul shots.
Laurentian got two more baskets to extend their lead however they got called for goaltending later on. This helped Concordia as they scored on the basket, in addition to a three-pointer by forward Zander Jean. Laurentian got another basket to extend its lead to 51-42 after three quarters.
The Stingers once again got the first points in the fourth quarter as Fosu scored a two-point basket. Laurentian countered with a 4-0 run with all four points coming from forward Sam Hirst.
The referees gave a technical foul to the Laurentian bench because their coach Shawn Swords was frustrated at the refs as he thought they were making bad calls on fouls and wrong calls on possession of the ball throughout the game. The technical foul inspired Concordia as they got five straight points, reducing the Voyageurs’ lead to six.
Then, Jean would get another three-pointer to reduce the difference down to three, but that would be the closest the Stingers would get to try to tie the game. Laurentian forward Nelson Yengue had two late slam dunks to guarantee the victory.
All of Laurentian’s starting lineup had double-digit points. The most was by Alex Ratte with 22 points and he was also named tournament MVP. Concordia’s point-producer was Mukiya Post, who had 18 points.
“We compete hard, were a young team—we made far too many mistakes,” said head coach John Dore of his Stingers team, which has only six returning members from last year.
Next up, the Stingers will head west to play in the UBC tournament next weekend. Their first game is against Victoria on Oct. 10 at 3 p.m.
