Tag: mbasketball

The University of New Brunswick (UNB) Varsity Reds handed the Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team their seventh consecutive loss Saturday Oct. 26, as the Stingers fell 80-70 on home court.

Concordia got off to a good start. Stingers centre Zach Brisebois opened the scoreboard with a two pointer, and despite appearing slow defensively, Concordia was successful at picking up fouls in offensive territory with forward Taylor Garner capitalizing on those penalties, scoring four points on four free throws.

The Stingers brought the first period to a close with a lead of 20-13.

Garner later proved to be once again clutch early in the second quarter, and after a timeout called at 6:52 of the period, Concordia resumed play appearing to be the fresher and more active of the two teams.

Late in the quarter, however, there appeared to be a change in momentum, as the Reds buried a three-pointer and netted two more points off of a successful free throw following a Concordia foul. Capitalizing on Concordia’s lack of focus, UNB took the lead and the half came to a close with a score of 39 to 35.

UNB guard Javon Masters took the reins for his team in the second half, while Stingers guard Jean-André Moussignac came up big for his side, sinking a three-pointer to bring Concordia within two points.

Despite missing his first free throw of the night, Garner redeemed himself and scored off of a huge drive by Stingers forward Mukiya Post, making it a tie game at 52 points apiece.

Concordia briefly regained the lead after experiencing what seemed like a sudden spurt of energy, but the Varsity Reds scored again shortly after, ending the third period with the lead.

Brisebois remained active in the fourth until a minor hand injury momentarily forced him out of the game.

After a UNB player put the ball in the Stingers’ hands, Garner went crashing into the sideline chairs in an attempt to keep the ball inbounds, while Stingers forward Zander Jean made sure the tumble wasn’t in vain and scored to make it a one point game.

The Stingers later denied the Reds a scoring opportunity before a timeout was called with just over two minutes left in the game. The scoreboard showed a lead of 70-69 for the visitors.

Concordia had given it all they had at that point. However, the Varsity Reds prevailed with a final score of 80-70, as they seemed to be the better conditioned team in the end. Reds’ guard Daniel Quirion proved to be the game’s leading scorer with 30 points, while Garner netted a total of 15 for Concordia.

“I think we played pretty well to start the game. We lost our composure offensively a little bit, took some bad shots, and allowed them back in the game,” said Stingers head coach John Dore when asked about the game. “Defensively, we‘ve got a bit of work to do.”

This was the third and final non-conference game of the season. The Stingers will now head south of the border to play the University of Vermont Catamounts next Sunday in Burlington, in their final exhibition game of the season.

On Saturday afternoon, the Concordia Stingers played host to the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, but lost their sixth game in a row 109-68.

The game started off on the wrong foot, as the league did not schedule any referees for the game. However, the game was able to be played as two people with experience in refereeing were pulled out of the stands.

The Varsity Blues won tip-off but the ball ended up in the Stingers’ hands. After great defence and rebounding by both teams, the Stingers scored first with a two-pointer by centre Zach Brisebois. Brisebois was fouled on the play and scored on the foul shot.

The Varsity Blues responded with a couple of three pointers by forward Manny Sahota. Forward Mukiya Post helped the Stingers respond with a three pointer from the perimeter. After another two pointer by the Varsity Blues, Stingers forward Zander Jean got a three pointer and then guard Inti Salinas came off the bench and shot another three-point ball for the Stingers. The score at the end of the quarter was 25-19 for the Varsity Blues.

In the second quarter, Stingers scored first on a basket by Fosu. After the Varsity Blues got a couple of two pointers, Stingers responded with a three pointer by guard Adam Chmielewski. The Varsity Blues struck back with a couple of two pointers. However, the Stingers responded with two three-pointers of their own, one from Post and the other from guard Jean-Andre Moussignac. The Varsity Blues then dominated the rest of the quarter. The Stingers did end the second quarter on a high note as Salinas had a three-pointer as time was expiring. The score was 54-39 for the Varsity Blues at the end of the half.

The Stingers started the second half with the ball but weren’t able capitalize as the Blues scored the first points of the quarter. Brisebois got Concordia’s first points of the quarter and Fosu then got another two points. However, this was the only bright spot for the Stingers as the Varsity Blues kept on shooting well and driving to the basket with a couple of easy layups. Salinas once again came off the bench to shoot his third three-pointer of the night. The score after the third quarter was 83-54 for the Varsity Blues.

The Varsity Blues got the first points of the fourth quarter. They then went on 10-0 run. Post got a two pointer and then on the next drive he was fouled after he got another basket. Toronto forward Denis Ankrah had a three-pointer, which extended the Blues’ lead.  Brisebois near the end of the game had a block shot that stopped the Varsity Blues from getting more baskets. The final score was 109-68.

“It was ugly… I think we hit the bottom today because you can’t get any worse,” said Stingers head coach John Dore.

Note:  Stingers forward Josue-Smith Telfort left the game in the first half with an ankle injury. He did not return. He will have X-rays this week according to Dore. Five University of Toronto players had double-digit points. The most was by Manny Sahota who was their best player with 19 points. The Stingers best player was Mukiya Post, who had 16 points in the loss. Stingers shot 33.3 per cent in Field Goal (FG) percentage and in three-point percentage they had 30.0 per cent.

The Stingers next game is next Saturday against the University of New Brunswick, at home.

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.

The Stingers men’s basketball team was faced with a tough away playoff game in Sherbrooke last Wednesday, as the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec playoffs got underway.

Concordia missed their chance to secure home-court advantage for this playoff match after failing to beat the last-place Laval Rouge et Or in the final match of the regular season. For finishing third in the conference, the team had to visit the second-place Bishop’s Gaiters in the semi-finals.

The first quarter was a roller-coaster. After Concordia’s 8-0 to start the game, Bishop’s scored eight straight points to level the score. The Gaiters stayed strong and were up 18-11 with 1:45 to play. The Stingers scored seven straight points to tie the game after the first 10 minutes.

Concordia held a small lead for most of the second quarter. The home Gaiters team kept answering their opponents and pulled ahead with a four-point lead at halftime.

Both teams traded baskets throughout the third quarter. Concordia feverishly tried to pull ahead to no avail. It finally happened when Taylor Garner scored with 44 seconds to go. Bishop’s hit a basket right after to have a marginal one-point lead going into the final frame.

As expected, both teams went back-and-forth knowing the RSEQ championship game was on the line. Concordia managed to tie the game early on, but Bishop’s was able to pull ahead with a couple of baskets. The Stingers were unable to get any closer than that. Bishop’s took the game 70-63.

This ended the Stingers’ tough season. The team finished the regular season with a 9-7 record. The seven losses account for more defeats than their last two seasons combined.

The Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team fought off a third quarter comeback attempt by the Laval Rouge et Or last Saturday afternoon, winning 74-59 at home.

The Stingers got off to a convincing start in the game. Stingers guard Adam Chmielewski led the offense in the first quarter. He beat the

shot clock two and a half minutes in to give Concordia a 6-2 lead with his three-pointer.

With two minutes to go in the quarter, Chmielewski pulled down a defensive rebound and passed the ball to guard Jerome Blake down the court. Blake converted a three-pointer to put the Stingers up 23-15.

Chmielewski’s buzzer-beating three ball gave Concordia a 10-point lead to end the first quarter. The Stingers were hot behind the arc, hitting five threes in the quarter.

The maroon and gold kept up their high-powered offence. With just under six and a half minutes to play, the Stingers had a commanding 19-point lead.

Rouge et Or got back into the game after scoring nine unanswered points, bringing the score to 37-27.

In the dying seconds of the second quarter, after a missed three-point shot, the Stingers pulled down an offensive rebound to keep possession of the basketball. Chmielewski’s jumper gave Concordia a 42-29 lead at the half.

The Rouge et Or closed in on the Stingers lead to start the third. After giving up an early Kyle Desmarais basket, Laval went on an 8-0 run to narrow the score to 44-37. They eventually made it a five-point game after guard Laurier Beaulac-Dufresne successfully made his shot with 4:46 to go.

That was the closest the Rouge et Or would get to pulling even in the game, as the Stingers began to pull away again. Concordia scored eight straight points to end the quarter and, more importantly, gave the team a sizeable 61-46 lead.

“We lost our head a bit [in the third quarter],” said Chmielewski. “We didn’t communicate to each other. A team is going to make a run eventually, that’s how basketball is. When teams feel pressure, when they’re down, they have nothing to lose anymore. They’re playing desperate, so obviously they’re going to come back.”

With Laval desperately trying to muster their way back into the game, Concordia held firm as both teams cancelled each other out scoring 13 points in the final frame. The final buzzer rang with the Stingers’ winning by 15 points

Desmarais was the maroon and gold’s highest scorer, finishing with 20 points, seven steals and three assists. Laroche and Chmielewski ended with 14 points and nine points respectively, while Morgan Tajfel scored 10 points coming off the bench.

“We kept the pressure on offensively,” said Concordia head coach John Dore. “We made it a fast game up and down. We had a few turnovers, but we were able to finish our shots. We controlled the tempo of the game. We pressed them full court and we ran the floor well.”

The second-place Stingers will now head to Bishop’s University to take on the first-place Gaiters on Friday, Feb. 8. at 8 p.m. The game is available online on SSN.