Men’s Basketball: “Rude Awakening”

Concordia Suffers First Loss of The Season to McGill

The Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team lost 75-53 to the third-ranked McGill Redmen in front of a boisterous crowd at the Love Competition Hall on Thursday evening.  Photo Shaun Michaud
The Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team lost 75-53 to the third-ranked McGill Redmen in front of a boisterous crowd at the Love Competition Hall on Thursday evening.  Photo Shaun Michaud
The Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team lost 75-53 to the third-ranked McGill Redmen in front of a boisterous crowd at the Love Competition Hall on Thursday evening.  Photo Shaun Michaud

The Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team lost 75-53 to the third-ranked McGill Redmen in front of a boisterous crowd at the Love Competition Hall on Thursday evening.

The Stingers were undefeated heading into the game, with a 2-0 record, but had no answer against McGill, who cruised to a victory in the second half.

“I think they played harder than us,” head coach Rastko Popovic said. “They competed better, their intensity was better. We didn’t play for a full 40 minutes, and they did. That’s why they are the number three team in the country and we need to learn from this.”

Stingers forward Schneiders Suffrard came off the bench and scored 12 points and added two blocks to lead his team, but the rest of the Stinger’s lineup could not keep pace as none of them registered more than eight points on the night. Despite only scoring six points, forward Ken Beaulieu had nine rebounds in the game, though it wasn’t enough to secure the victory.

“Hopefully this was a rude awakening for some of our guys,” Popovic continued.

The Redmen, who were backed by a raucous crowd in their home opener, did everything they needed to do to get the victory. Guard Jenning Leung had 15 points, including three shots made from 3-point range, while Francois Bourque and Vincent Dufort added 13 and 12 points respectively.

With the victory, McGill moves to 2-0 on the season. Concordia, on the other hand, will have to wait more than a week to get back into the win column when they host Bishop’s on Nov. 28.

“We have a full week to prepare,” said Popovic. “We have six practices until our next game, and we have to come back out on the winning track.”