Nike Tournament Glory
Men’s Basketball Team Regains its Title, Uses Tournament as Preparation
The men’s basketball team erased memories of last year’s defeat to Wilfrid Laurier University by winning the annual Concordia-Nike Tournament 73-72 over the New York Institute of Technology Bears Saturday night at Loyola Gym.
This year’s installment of the tournament involved the Stingers, NYIT Bears, Ryerson Rams and the Winnipeg Wesmen.
En route to the final, the Stingers had to overcome the Wesmen in the first round, which they did with a 85-80 result.
Throughout the first quarter of that game, the Stingers employed an aggressive style on defence by stripping the Winnipeg players of the ball on several occasions and countering with points at the other end.
The next two quarters were dominated by the Wesmen, thanks to a better strategic organization that ended up being disrupted by the Stingers during the last quarter.
“We ended up coming out on the losing side,” said Wesmen head coach Mike Raimbault. “[There were] a lot of positives, as well as things to clean up.”
Raimbault said he found the game very instructive since it highlighted what the new players had to improve before starting the 2010-2011 season.
Stingers head coach John Dore said he was happy that there was chemistry between the new additions and more experienced players.
“We should be improved from last year,” he said. “We had some turnovers but showed we could come back.”
Decee Krah and Kyle Desmarais led the Stingers in points with 24 and 22, respectively in Friday’s game.
“As long as we focus on our game and work hard, we’ll get better,” said Krah, a 4th-year marketing student who played at Cathedral High School in Hamilton, Ont.
Desmarais recently transferred to the Stingers from Central Connecticut State University, where he played against first-division teams such as Rhode Island, Boston College and Arizona State of the NCAA.
He is set to play as a point guard this year and has been training to improve his left hand and dribbling.
The men’s basketball team will be in Kingston on Thursday to face the St. Lawrence College Vikings in exhibition play. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.
This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 09, published October 12, 2010.
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