No Longer Perfect

Concordia Loses First Game of Season to McGill

SportsYacine Bouhali — Published November 26, 2012

Last Saturday, two Montreal rivals entered the Concordia gym with one goal in mind––stay undefeated.

Only one team could achieve that, and unfortunately it wasn’t the Concordia Stingers, whose men’s basketball team let a fourth quarter lead slip away as they lost a 68-69 decision to the McGill Redmen.

“We should’ve won the game tonight,” said head coach John Dore. “They didn’t beat us––we beat ourselves with a lot of mental errors.

“We lost our composure and let them get away from us. We gave a good effort but we need get better mentally and we will.”

Concordia got off to a slow start, but after being outscored 22-10 in the first quarter the Stingers finally found their rhythm as they outplayed their rivals in the second and third quarters, rallying behind shooting guard Jerome Blake. Blake seemed unstoppable in the third, scoring eight straight points, six of which came from downtown.

He finished the game with 20 points, a season high.

Playing tight on defense and opportunistic on offense, Concordia kept fighting and it payed off as they went on to lead 57-47 with 8:41 left in the game. The Stingers looked on the verge of winning their fourth straight game this season, but at the most important time of the afternoon they lost focus.

The Stingers turned the ball over three times in a row, allowing the Redmen to get back within two points at the 5:23 mark before McGill would eventually regain the lead for good.

“We lost the fourth quarter and the game because we were too soft, too relaxed,” said Stingers star forward Evens Laroche, who finished the game with only seven points and three assists, his poorest showing yet this year.

“My performance was disastrous; I was kind of lost on the court, trying to listen to and do what the coach says and the same time, play my type of game and trust my instincts.”

Dore was unhappy with the game’s result but saw the loss as a lesson to his players.
“We need to play with a sense of urgency right at the beginning of the game, not wait until we’re losing to do so,” he said.

The Stingers, who now stand at 3-1 on the season and in second place in the Réseau du Sport Étudiant du Québec conference, play their last game before the Christmas break next Friday in Laval against the Rouge et Or. Tipoff is at 8:00 p.m.