Men’s Basketball: Stingers Come Out Flat Against Redmen

McGill’s Clinch Comfortable 72-45 Win Over Concordia

SportsHarrison-Milo Rahajason — Published February 19, 2017

The second game of a Thursday evening men’s/women’s double-header at Loyola went much differently than the first.

Concordia guard Nicholas Noble connected on a jump-shot to make the score 11-10 in favour of the Redmen with about four and a half minutes to play in the first quarter. The Stingers would not score another basket over the next six minutes of the game.

By then, McGill was up 25-12, and things were looking rather grim for the home team.

“We didn’t make shots,” said Stingers head coach Rastko Popovic. “It’s really as simple as that. Nine for 34 [shooting from the field] is not going to cut it against anybody.”

Concordia’s primary offensive options all had tough outings. Ken Beaulieu, the team’s leading scorer, was held scoreless on zero for three from the field in 20 minutes of action. Schneiders Suffrard scored just eight points, while forward Michael Fosu scored only four. All of those marks fall well short of their respective season’s averages.

Starting point guard Ricardo Monge dropped a solid 11 points on five for 13 from the field, but it wasn’t anywhere near sufficient for the Stingers.

“We just never got it going,” said Popovic.

While the Stingers mired through their tough scoring night, the Redmen were absolutely not going to wait up. They looked confident on Thursday night, and the statistics reflect that. They connected on 47% of their shots, including 52.9% from three-point range. That mark is the Réseau du Sport Étudiant du Québec’s second best three-point shooting performance of the season, behind McGill’s 53% shelling of the Stingers in November.

By halftime, the Redmen were up by 17. As the game went on, their lead grew to as many as 30 points. They weren’t missing many shots, and they weren’t giving the Stingers any room to wiggle their way back into the game.

Luckily for the Stingers, though, this loss does not knock them out of second place in the RSEQ standings. They’re two games behind McGill for first place, and two ahead of UQAM for second, with precisely two games left in the regular season.

They round of their schedule with a visit to Bishop’s on Wednesday, and a home finale with Laval next Saturday.

Should they win those two, and should McGill lose their last two games, the two would finish with the same record of 11 wins and five losses. However, by virtue of McGill having won three out of the four meetings between the two teams in the regular season, they would win the combined head-to-head record, and still go into the playoffs as the top seed.

Regardless, the Stingers’ focus has turned to winning their next two contests. Should they meet the Redmen again, coach Popovic is still confident in his team’s ability to beat them.

“They’re obviously a good team,” said Popovic. “But I think they’re a team we can meet if we play them again down the road. Our guys battled hard today, they just didn’t make enough shots.

No Stingers players were made available to comment after this game.