A Rough Start

Women’s Basketball Come out Flat Against McGill

SportsDavid Kaufmann — Published January 13, 2013

The Concordia Stingers women’s basketball team appeared to be in holiday mode as they were nowhere to be found in Thursday’s blowout loss to the McGill Martlets.

“McGill came out exactly as I expected,” said Stingers head coach Keith Pruden. “They came out and played hard and well. They were aggressive, and we appeared to be surprised.”

The Martlets never trailed in the game, though the Stingers managed to keep it close in the first half, at one point only trailing by three. This all changed with a string of three McGill three-pointers courtesy of forward Gabriela Hebert and point guard Françoise Charest—ending the half with a 37-25 lead.

“It didn’t matter who we were putting on the floor, we were getting flat performances.”
—Stingers Head Coach Keith Purden

“I think we played really well by moving the ball and finding open shooters,” said Martlets head coach Ryan Thorne.

The Martlets would take this momentum into the second half, outscoring the Stingers 22-4 in the third quarter alone.

“It didn’t matter who we were putting on the floor, we were getting flat performances,” said Purden.

The Stingers battled it out in the fourth, but couldn’t manage to pull out of the hole they had dug themselves, resulting in Concordia losing not only their second straight league game, but their first-place ranking in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec standings as well.

Pruden believes inexperience may have been a factor in Thursday’s loss.

“It’s a very young team really. We have only one fourth-year player, we play a lot of rookies a lot of minutes, and we showed our lack of preparation today,” he said.