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McGill 77, Concordia 62: Stingers rookies impress in disappointing start to season

Concordia Stingers guard Olivier Koumassou Bernier (3) tries to get past McGill Redbirds guard Jamal Mayali (10) during a RSEQ basketball game in Montreal, Quebec November 11, 2021. LAURENT BEAUSOLEIL/Concordia

The Stingers lose their season opener against last season’s top-seeded Redbirds

The Stingers began the 2021⁠–22 RSEQ regular season with a disappointing loss to their rival Redbirds on Thursday night. In the 77⁠–62 loss, Concordia’s rookies played major minutes and kept the team in the game, while the team’s senior players struggled with consistency.

“It’s encouraging to see our first-year guys play well,” said Rastko Popovic, head coach of the Stingers men’s basketball team. “But I thought our seniors just did not do the job tonight. We can’t expect our first-year guys to lead us to wins, especially when McGill’s two best players, especially Jamal Mayali, were outstanding tonight.” 

As a team, McGill’s offence was firing on all cylinders, especially from the perimeter where the Redbirds went 12⁠/31 on three-point field goal attempts. Conversely, Concordia’s offence struggled with their shot from behind the arc (4⁠/24 from three) and at the free-throw line (18/28). Despite McGill’s exceptional play on both ends of the floor, Stingers guard Sami Jahan said Concordia was their own worst enemy. 

“They [McGill] didn’t do anything that surprised us. We knew they moved the ball and could hit open shots, but we just didn’t execute on our game plan tonight and do what we were supposed to do,” Jahan said. 

McGill’s fifth-year guard Mayali led the way for the Redbirds, tallying 29 points on 16 shot attempts with six made threes. Concordia rookie Olivier Koumassou Bernier led the Stingers in minutes and brought confidence and energy to the team. He finished the game with 10 points to go along with his three rebounds, three assists, and two steals. 

The first half was back and forth with McGill leading 32–30 before the break, but Concordia struggled to keep their foot on the gas once play resumed. At the start of the third quarter, McGill went on an 8–0 run which gave the Redbirds a comfortable double-digit lead that Concordia could never overcome. Jahan put the team’s slow start to the second half on himself and the Stingers veterans.

“We didn’t come out with any energy,” Jahan said. “It was really the rookies that came into the game and held down the fort for us […] but we [the veterans] let the game slip and that’s on us.” 

Thursday night was Concordia’s first game of the season, but the Stingers coaching staff were already discussing ways to improve the team amongst themselves well after the game. 

“We have to play a lot harder and execute more offensively. There’s too many small details that we’re not doing right now. Today McGill played much harder. We showed some good things early on but we didn’t compete, especially in the second half,” Popovic said.

The Stingers will look to bounce back next week when they host Bishop’s and Laval at Concordia Stadium on Thursday and Saturday respectively.

 

Photograph by Laurent Beausoleil

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Stingers 89, Martlets 52: Concordia dominates in women’s basketball season opener

Concordia vs. McGill Women's Basketball game on Nov. 11 2021 . LAURENT BEAUSOLEIL/The Concordian

Stingers start 2021⁠–22 RSEQ regular season on the right foot on the road against the Martlets

Stingers veterans helped lead the team to victory for their first regular season game in over 600 days. In preparation for the game, Stingers head coach Tenicha Gittens said she hoped to harness the excitement and turn it into good energy for a competitive and successful game. Concordia did just that, coming out ready to battle against the younger Martlets team. 

The Stingers took the lead almost immediately. McGill head coach Rikki Bowles called a timeout early in the first quarter in an attempt to stop the momentum. However, the Stingers remained strong, building their lead throughout the rest of the game. 

Caroline Task, a fifth-year guard, said winning the first game is “definitely a confidence booster” for the rest of the season. She attributed the successful start to strong defence and good team chemistry. 

“We feed a lot on our defence. And we were there, we were present defensively,” Task said. 

After an injury to Areej Burgonio’s left knee in the third quarter, Concordia’s command started to waver, and their lead began to shrink. Luckily, Burgonio was able to get her knee checked and re-taped, and quickly returned to the game to help her team get back on track. Stingers veteran Task wasn’t worried about the slowdown. 

“Obviously we had some lapses like any game, but we’re a team, we have really good chemistry off the court. And I think that really translates on the court,” Task said. 

The lapses are something Task believes the team will need to limit in their upcoming home opener against an experienced Bishops team. That game is set to start next week on Nov. 18 at 6 p.m. 

With the first win of the 2021–22 RSEQ regular season already secured by the Stingers, it looks to be an exciting season. Gittens said she has the same goal as all the other teams in the conference, to be champions. Her strategy is to take things one day at a time and build the team “brick by brick.”

“It starts in the preseason at summertime. It’s in the weight room. It’s in practice. It’s in those extra shots you get up at night. Every part of that journey is a brick that you want to lay to build that wall, to get us to our ultimate goal — to be champions,” Gittens said.

 

Photograph by Laurent Beausoleil

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Concordia 2 McGill 1 (SO): Stingers win season-opener in marathon match

Sometimes three periods of hockey isn’t enough, and you have to go to overtime.

Then double overtime.

Then a shootout.

That’s what it took for the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team, as they beat the McGill Martlets 2-1 at McConnell Arena in a shootout in what was a season-opener to remember.

“That was an awesome hockey game,” said head coach Julie Chu after the marathon match. “The whole team played really well. Both teams played really well, both had moments of momentum and moments to take advantage. It was a good hard fought game and we’re really happy for the first one of the season.”

McGill jumped ahead to a 1-0 lead in the second period on a goal from Jade Downie-Landry. The goal came after the Stingers were unable to convert on a pair of back-to-back power plays.

A minute later, the Stingers responded.

On another powerplay, Concordia kept the puck moving, inching forward before defender Brigitte Lagagniére found Rosalie Bégin-Cyr, who fired a wrister past McGill goalie Tricia Deguire. Deguire would make 41 saves throughout the five periods of play.

That would be the only goal on the power play for the Stingers despite getting seven opportunities with the extra attacker, including a four-minute power play that ended with the Stingers spending more time in their end than the Martlet’s.

“Our third period power plays, we needed better energy,” said Chu. “Especially the four minute one. That’s our opportunity to really take advantage of that moment. Because we had that struggle in the first two minutes of the four, we let it affect us. When you’re on the power play, technically, you fail more than you succeed.”

Across the ice, Stingers goalie Alice Philbert was forced to stand on her head a couple of times. Most notably during a botched Stingers power play breakout that led to a breakaway, Philbert stretched her pad and denied the attempt. Philbert ended the game with 32 saves.

“I thought [Philbert] was great,” said Chu of the third-year tendy. “She’s developed into a tremendous level at the university level. Her first year, she came in as a young person who needed to gain some strength and experience. I thought she was really solid today, was calm, made some big saves for us and obviously in the shootout she was really good.”

The Stingers 5-on-5 played well. Veterans like Audrey Belzile used her speed and power to generate more than a few scoring chances. Former Martlet Olivia Atkinson showed flashes of her CWHL-level skill. Rookie Emmy Fecteau was able to dangle through waves of Martlets at times. While there were more than a few solid individual efforts, rookie Léonie Philbert was one to really stand out. Playing both defence and forward at different points of the game, Philbert battled hard along the boards, managed to get a breakaway opportunity and was a general pain in the ass of the Martlets.

After regulation, the game headed to overtime. Both teams went back and forth, and both teams had chances to put the game away, but the goalies said otherwise. So off to a shootout we go.

Fecteau and Atkinson both were unable to score in the shootout. Philbert denied first two shooters as well. It was Bégin-Cyr who finally managed to put the Stingers ahead, snapping a shot five-hole as the third shooter. McGill’s Kellyanne Lecours was than calmly stopped by Philbert, giving the Stingers their first win of the season and putting an end to a low-scoring slugfest of a game.

“It was a really good team win, regardless of it ending up in a shootout,” said Chu.

NOTES

Two things:

  1.  I’m tracking shots and shot location for this upcoming Stingers whky season. It’s not going to be perfect, but should be interesting.
  2. Please inject this type of hockey directly into my veins.

 

Photos by Mackenzie Lad

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