Provincial Champions

Concordia Stingers Beat Laval For a Spot at Nationals

SportsDavid Kaufmann — Published March 8, 2011

The Concordia Stingers are headed to the CIS championship after a bitter fight against the Laval Rouge et Or. The Stingers snatched the provincial title in a 77-67 win at the Loyola Gym.

“This is what we do all the time,” said Stingers guard Decee Krah after an 18-point evening. “We believed in each other, we played great defence and we took care of the ball.”

ConU got the ball rolling, but it didn’t take long for the opposition to catch up. By the time first quarter was over, Laval was leading 18-11 and 42-31 at halftime. But the Stingers had more fight in them than was indicated by the scores.

“Laval cooled off in the second half and we took advantage,” said Stingers guard Kyle Desmarais, who netted 14 points.

“We believed in each other, we played great defense and we took care of the ball.”
–Decee Krah,
Stinger Guard

With an opening basket from Desmarais, and Krah cashing in on a Laval foul that saw him sink both of his free throws, the Stingers chipped away at Laval’s lead point by point.

Moments later, with a three pointer by Krah and a basket from forward James Clark, the Stingers regained the lead for the first time since the beginning of the game.

“They picked it up a notch, and we simply didn’t respond,” said Rouge et Or head coach Jacques Paiement in response to his team’s second half downfall.

Sure enough, Laval succumbed to the Stingers offence in the fourth quarter, netting a mere 10 points against Concordia’s 23.

While Laval proved to be stiff competition at first, the wheels fell off in the dying minutes as guards Xavier Baribeau and Alexandre Prophete fouled out, paving the way to the CIS nationals for the Stingers.

This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 25, published March 8, 2011.