Ashley Moss – The Concordian

Ashley Moss was injured in her first game as a Stinger, but returned this season

Ashley Moss joined the Concordia Stingers women’s basketball team before the 2016-17 season with high expectations for herself and her team. As a transfer from the Holland Hurricanes of Charlottetown, P.E.I., she came to Concordia with one goal in mind—to help put a championship banner in the rafters of the Stingers’s home court.

Before she could help her team to the top, Moss had a hill of her own to climb. In her very first game with the Stingers in October 2016, Moss went down with what was later discovered to be a serious injury. Tests revealed she had torn her left Achilles tendon as well as her meniscus. These injuries kept her sidelined for the rest of her first season, and marked the beginning of a tedious, year-long rehabilitation process.

While this devastating injury presented Moss with a tough road to recovery, she is not a stranger to long and winding roads. Moss was born and raised in Nassau, Bahamas. When she was in 12th grade, her family moved to a different part of the city, which is where basketball first caught her eye. According to Moss, basketball started not so much as a passion, but as a necessity.

“There was a court on the side of my house. I was in a new neighbourhood, and the only thing to do was to go watch the boys play basketball,” she said. Eventually, Moss got tired of watching. She began participating in the street games and competing against full-grown men at the age of 18. From here, both her love and skill for the game developed.

Standing at 5-10, Moss is a lengthy, athletic forward. Her size gives her a particular type of defensive prowess which is cherished by coaches, and is what ended up earning her a spot on the Bahamas national women’s basketball team. She played on the national team for three years. In 2015, her last season with the team, she helped lead the Bahamas to a gold medal at the International Basketball Federation Caribbean Basketball Confederation (FIBA CBC) championship.

Moss injured her Achilles tendon in her first game last season, and missed the entire year. Photo by Kirubel Mehari.

She wanted to see how much further basketball could take her, and decided to leave the tropical heat of the Caribbean for the bitter cold of Canada to keep playing. Moss began her collegiate career at Holland College in 2013-14. In her three seasons at Holland College, she won back-to-back Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) championships in 2015 and 2016, and helped the team compete in their first two national championship tournaments.

From the Bahamas to P.E.I., Moss made a tough transition but maintained a winning pedigree. Moss said her move was tough because she had never been away from her family, nor had she seen the school. This is exactly what she was preparing to do again, when she moved from Charlottetown to Montreal, where she felt she had the best chance to keep winning. Moss said Stingers head coach Tenicha Gittens influenced her to make the switch to Concordia.

Gittens helped ease the transition for Moss by bringing in fellow Holland College recruits, Marvia Dean and Jazlin Barker, for the 2016-17 season.

“[Gittens] was on the same page as us,” Moss said. “She wanted to win a championship, and I feel like we can do it with her.”

Unfortunately for Moss, she was not able to join her former Hurricanes teammates on the court in her first season as a Stinger.

When asked to describe her journey back from last year’s season-ending injury, Moss did not lie about how hard it was. “My rehab was really rough, but what was even harder than the rehab was watching my teammates play,” she said. “The wins were good, but when they lost and struggled, I really felt the struggle.” According to Moss, she had to learn to walk again, and at times, was limited to shooting shots while sitting down in a chair with her leg up in a boot, as her teammates practiced.

As of today, Moss is healthy and off to a strong start this year. She won Most Valuable Player of the Concordia Classic Tournament in October, which her team won, and was named athlete of the week twice in the preseason. On Nov. 9, she played her first regular season game at home in front of a noisy crowd, which she had been itching to do.

“Do you know how long I’ve waited to play in this gym? I’ve been waiting forever to play in front of this crowd,” Moss said enthusiastically.

Her pent up energy was on full display in the home opener, where she had game-highs in both rebounds, with 12, and blocks, with five.

The word resilient describes Moss’s journey, her character and her style of play. She never lets a bad break, a tough challenge or a daunting task keep her down. She consistently bulldozes her way through the obstacles in front of her, and in doing so, wins, both in life and in basketball.

Main photo by Kirubel Mehari.

Women’s team wins tournament with 3-0 record, while men’s team finishes second with 2-1 record

The Concordia Classic Basketball Tournament, which ran from Oct. 6 to Oct. 8, was a success for the Concordia Stingers. The Stingers host the pre-season tournament every year, and this year, six schools sent teams to play in the men’s and women’s tournaments. The Stingers women’s team won the tournament with a 3-0 record, while the men’s team finished in second place with a 2-1 record.

Women’s Team
Forward Ashley Moss, who missed the entire season last year with a knee injury, was named MVP of the tournament. She averaged nine points and 11 rebounds per game, with a field goal percentage of 59 per cent.

Guards Caroline Task and Jazlin Barker were named tournament All-Stars. Task led the team in scoring throughout the tournament, averaging 14.7 points per game. Barker had a dominating performance in their final game against Toronto, stuffing the stat sheet with 21 points, seven assists, three rebounds and five steals.

The tournament opener for the women was against the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) Panthers. This game had a quick start with the Stingers outscoring the Panthers 30-25. From there, Concordia did not let go of the lead and won with a final score of 60-53.

Rookie forward Coralie Dumont looks for a pass against the UPEI Panthers on Oct. 6. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

The Stingers’ second game was against the Algoma Thunderbirds, which they won in dominant fashion, 80-38. After the first quarter, the Stingers led 18-3, and by the end of the third quarter they were up by 23. They played well the entire game but especially in the fourth quarter. Everything seemed to be working for them offensively in transition, and their hustle was clear. The Stingers dove for loose balls, caused jump balls and forced turnovers with stout defence. It was a coming-out party for rookie guard Coralie Dumont, as she had 18 points and 13 rebounds.

The final game of the tournament was against the University of Toronto Varsity Blues. Barker stole the show with her 21 points and secured the tournament win. Moss was also instrumental in this win, as she had 10 points, 15 rebounds, two assists, four steals and two blocks. Thanks to these strong performances, the Stingers won the game, 73-64.

Men’s Team

The Stingers opened the tournament against the Regina Rams with a convincing 92-74 victory. Concordia’s offence was extremely well balanced, as five players had more than 10 points each. Point guard Ricardo Monge had 16 points and seven assists. Six-foot-seven forward Olivier Simon also had a strong showing, putting up 15 points, grabbing seven rebounds and adding two blocks.
Their second game came against a very strong opponent, Halifax’s Dalhousie Tigers, who finished last season with a record of 16-4. After the first quarter, the game was tied at 16. In the second quarter, the Stingers were able to grab a seven-point lead, but an aggressive half-court press by Dalhousie trimmed that lead to two by halftime.

The second half was a back-and-forth affair, with the lead changing hands on several occasions. Concordia was in the lead for most of the game, but Dalhousie continued to turn to the half-court press to apply pressure and force turnovers. Then, down by two points with 18 seconds left in the game, Dalhousie’s Alex Carson hit a dagger three-point shot to put them up by one. Concordia had time for one more shot but unfortunately missed. They lost a hard fought battle, 72-70.
The third and final game of the tournament for the men’s team came against the York Lions. The Stingers won the game, 85-80. The win was due in no small part to the hot start Concordia got off to, outscoring York 27-14 in the first quarter.

Forward Olivier Simon shoots a free throw against the Regina Rams on Oct. 6. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

The Stingers were actually outscored in each of the following three quarters by a total of eight points. However, York’s comeback was clearly not enough to erase the 13-point deficit created in the first quarter. The Stingers offence was incredibly well balanced again, with five players scoring in the double digits. Guard Jonathan Koud led his team with 16 points, five rebounds and three assists.
Two Stingers were named tournament All-Stars: Koud and forward/guard Ken Beaulieu. Koud led the team in scoring, averaging 15.7 points per game. Beaulieu was an outstanding sixth man, averaging an even 15 points per game coming off the bench. He provided huge boosts for his team throughout the tournament.

The women’s team plays various pre-season games for the rest of October before starting their season Nov. 9 in a home game against the Bishop’s Gaiters. The men’s team plays in a pre-season tournament at Queen’s University from Oct. 13 to 15, before starting their season Nov. 9 at home against the Bishop’s Gaiters.

Main photo by Alex Hutchins.