Clinching Home-Court Advantage in Style

Victory Secures Stingers Second Place Finish in RSEQ

SportsDavid Kaufmann — Published February 20, 2013

It’s official: The Concordia Stingers women’s basketball team will be opening the playoffs on their home court Feb. 27 as they clinched second place in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec last Thursday with a crushing victory over the Université du Québec à Montréal Citadins.

“I’m very pleased with the overall effort, and I’m pleased with the fact we were able to control the game,” said Stingers head coach Keith Pruden.

The Stingers didn’t waste any time getting the game started as they opened it with a 27-14 lead after the first ten minutes of play. This was thanks to the team effort displayed in the opening period. “People for the most part were ready to play,” said Pruden.

One such person was Stingers forward Marilyse Roy Viau, who logged in 33 minutes and led the team in scoring with 22 points despite wearing a cumbersome protective mask to deal with a broken nose suffered on Feb. 1.

Centre Tina Mpondani was also a key contributor as she scored 12 points and picked up 11 rebounds. “When we play consistent defence, we’re a much harder team to play against,” said Pruden.

This was evident as the Stingers managed to keep the momentum through the following three periods of play, holding off all pressure the Citadins brought on to cruise to victory. “Sometimes we don’t start as we wish, and this is why we struggled the whole game,” said UQAM head coach Albena Branzova-Dimitrova.

The Stingers will try to secure first place when the Bishop’s University Gaiters visit the Concordia Gym Thursday night before heading out to Quebec City to take on the Laval Rouge et Or on Saturday for their season finale. “How well we do is going to be contingent on whether or not we have efforts like we have tonight,” said Pruden.

The action gets underway Thursday night at 6:00 p.m and then Saturday at 5:00 p.m.