Women’s Basketball: Let’s Not Get Physical

Stingers Held Back by Referees in Loss to UQAM

SportsJulien Assouline — Published November 30, 2014 | Updated November 30, 2014 at 7:03pm

“Quebec [league] allows too much contact,” Pruden lamented. “I said that three weeks ago after our first league game. It’s not hockey. It’s basketball. It’s supposed to be a non-contact sport.”

It’s been a recurring theme for Pruden and the Concordia Stingers women’s basketball team this season.

The Stingers lost another physical game against the UQAM Citadins 61-49 on Thursday. Plenty of calls were missed by the referees, including a punch to the face to All-Canadian guard Kaylah Barrett in the first quarter, which frustrated many of the Stingers players. While the punch was allegedly not intentional, she needed to be removed from the game.

“Kaylah’s going to have a fantastic shiner tomorrow,” said Pruden.

The Stingers’ head coach voiced his displeasure on the officiating, but called on his players to adjust to referees’ tendencies.

“The onus is on us to adjust to the way [the game is] being called and we didn’t adjust, we got frustrated,” Pruden said. “The refs aren’t going to make a huge adjustment just because we’re not happy with the way they’re calling it.”

The Stingers were also poor with their possessions, causing 25 turnovers throughout the game, the most they’ve done in a game all season.

“For the season so far we’ve been averaging only nine turnovers a game. We had 25 tonight and their defense is good, but it’s not that good,” Pruden added. “That’s us making mental errors.”

The score was 32-30 at the end of the first half, in favour of the Stingers. Third-year forward Marilyse Roy-Viau was the star performer. She had 14 of the team’s first 22 points, and 16 points by half time.

But the game took a sharp turn in the second half when Roy-Viau went down with a twisted ankle and got up limping.

“She’s had problems with that ankle all year but she’s really, really tough,” said Pruden.

Roy-Viau clearly slowed down in the second half, scoring only five points, but coach Pruden would not blame it on Roy-Viau’s ankle.

“The issue was when she was getting frustrated with how physical the game was and she wasn’t getting any calls, so she kind of backed off a little bit,” Pruden said. “Everybody did, not just her, but she’s very sensitive about the ankle so it probably added to the distractions.”

The Stingers fell behind 49-40 after three quarters, but it was in the fourth quarter that they fell too far back to catch up to UQAM.

The Stingers were unable to generate any type of offense as the Citadins went on an 8-0 run, giving them a 57-40 lead and putting the game out of reach. In fact, the Stingers were unable to score a point until 5:18 was left in the quarter, when Kaylah Barrett made a free throw.

Concordia attempted a comeback after Barrett made her free throw, outscoring the Citadins 8-4 in the last five minutes of the game. The final score was a more respectable 61-49.

This is the team’s second straight loss, giving them a record of 1-3. They will now have the winter break to rest and improve. Their next league game will be against the Bishop’s Gaiters on Jan. 15.