Cruising to Victory

Stingers Fly Past Top-Ranked Gaiters

SportsYacine Bouhali — Published January 20, 2013

Concordia’s men’s basketball team put the rest of their future opponents on notice Saturday night at the Concordia Gym, as they dominated the Bishop’s Gaiters, ninth-ranked in Canada and top-ranked in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec.

“I wish we could’ve beat them by lot more,” said Stingers All-Canadian guard Kyle Desmarais. “We wanted to send a message to the rest of the country: We’re head and shoulders above everybody in this league and nationally, we’re coming for everybody.”

The game was competitive to start, with the Stingers holding onto a slim 43-34 lead at the half.

But they kicked it into second gear in the second half, at one point leading by 28 points en route to their convincing win.

It was Desmarais’ first home game of the year after a knee injury suffered five months ago kept him out up until Concordia’s road loss to Université du Québec à Montréal last week.

“It feels good to be back in this gym in front of the best fans of the league,” he said.

Desmarais gave Stingers fans every reason to cheer when he was on the court, scoring a game-high 25 points, recording six steals and holding top Bishop’s scorer centre Mike Andrews to just 10 points.

“Defensively, we dominated,” said head coach John Dore.

Concordia next plays this Thursday at 8 p.m. at home versus the McGill Redmen before heading to UQAM to play the Citadins Saturday at 7 p.m. Wins in both games would give the Stingers first place in the RSEQ.

“We know how important are those games and we will be ready,” said Dore.