Another Loss

Stingers losing streak now stands at five

SportsEric White — Published February 6, 2012

What started out as an undefeated run has now turned into a free fall for Concordia’s women’s basketball team.

The Stingers lost their fifth straight to the Université de Québec à Montréal last Saturday because of a poor showing in the final quarter. Despite a 6-0 start, the Stingers have now fallen to 6-5.

“They played like a team that really wanted to win and we just kind of showed up,” said Stingers head coach Keith Pruden.

Concordia had no answer for Citadins center Emie Simard, who scored a whopping 33 points, most of them from inside the paint, and the team couldn’t find an attacking edge as Concordia’s leading scorer Kaylah Barrett struggled with a hip injury. Despite the guard battling through 28 minutes, she was only able to contribute three points.

The Stingers got off to a great start as they jumped out to early 7-0 and 10-2 leads. They looked aggressive and sharp, with rookie forward Serginha Estime grabbing six points from offensive rebounds in the first quarter.

Down 24-13 going into the second, the Citadins quickly showed they would not give up that easily. Simard’s post-up game proved threatening, and the center’s strong lay-ups cut down the Stingers’ lead to one going into halftime.

In the third, UQAM picked up where they left off eventually taking over the game. Concordia forward Adreanne Gregoire-Boudreau scored 11 points in the quarter to keep her team in it, yet by the fourth, the Citadins soon pulled away.

With less than five minutes to go, Simard showed that she doesn’t just have inside game, sinking a three-pointer. This put the Citadins up 65–59 and they would not look back. When the game ended at 74–61, the Stingers were outscored 26–8 in the final quarter.

With two losses over one weekend and a five game skid, Pruden believes it is now his team’s choice as to whether or not they want to turn the season around.

“The coaching staff has been harping on the same things for about a month now [but] it doesn’t seem to be getting any traction,” he said. “So they’ve got to make a decision about where they want this to go. If they decide they actually want to make some improvements, we’ll be fine.”

The Stingers have an important game against the Bishops University Gaiters this Friday as they currently trail the second place team by two points in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec standings. The action takes place at 6:00 p.m. at the Loyola Gym.