Starting Playoffs the Hard Way

Women’s Basketball Loses Twice, But Still Claims Home Court Advantage

SportsDavid Kaufmann — Published February 27, 2012

Concordia’s women’s basketball team secured a home court advantage for the playoffs this past weekend, but they did it the hard way.

The Stingers lost 67-61 to the Laval Rouge et Or Saturday night, following the 44-42 loss to the UQAM Citadins the night before, but despite these losses they still clinched the advantage going into the post season thanks to a lucky result elsewhere in the league.

“We started to get sloppy with the ball and we couldn’t make a free throw to save our lives,” said Stingers head coach Keith Pruden, referring to the Friday night loss.

While the Stingers didn’t get the results they were looking for, they certainly came out of the gate strong. This comes after they jumped to a 17-8 lead early in the second with help from Andreanne Gregoire-Boudreau and Alex Boudreau, who led the team in scoring with 12 and five points, respectively.

Yet from that point forward the Stingers took their foot off the gas. This led to UQAM going on a run that saw them go up 15 points in the span of four minutes. By halftime, they trailed 23-22.

By the time the third quarter came around however, the Stingers caught on to their antics. This was evident as Gregoire Boudreau took back the lead early in the quarter with a strong offensive performance.

But facing elimination, UQAM seemed to have that extra playoff push. They followed up with points of their own, managing to obtain a five point lead by the end of the quarter.

With the score deadlocked and three minutes left in the fourth, the Stingers nearly got a break when Citadins guard Michelle Auger-Bellemare got herself into foul trouble. But Gregoire-Boudreau couldn’t convert from free throw line, a theme that hurt Concordia all game long—only sinking eight out of 22 from behind the paint.

Even though the Stingers are on a three-game losing streak following the losses, they still managed to clinch home court advantage. This is because in order to qualify they needed either a victory or a Laval loss, which the Quebec City team did, losing 62-42 to Bishops University.

Yet Pruden believes his team has to put in more effort to succeed in the post-season.

“We have to be consistent, we have to not back off, and we have to make sure we’re protecting the ball,” Pruden said. “We’re playing Bishops [on] Tuesday and we have to be able to handle that.”

The Stingers begin their quest for the gold medal Feb. 28 at the Loyola Gym when they take on Bishops. Should they win, they go on to face either McGill or UQAM this Friday at a location yet to be determined. Both games are at 7:00 p.m.