Stingers men’s basketball team awarded final spot at Nationals
Concordia University advances to U Sports Championships via wild-card berth
The Concordia University Stingers men’s basketball team is going to Vancouver.
For the first time since 2019, the Stingers will play in the U Sports Men’s Basketball Championships, having received the final wild-card berth into the tournament. The championships will take place at the University of British Columbia from March 13 to March 16.
The last time the Stingers qualified for the Men’s Basketball Final 8, they fell in the quarterfinal to the Toronto Metropolitan University Bold, 87-47.
Despite losing the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) final to the Bishop’s University Gaiters, the Stingers were one of four teams in all of U Sports eligible for the wild-card spot.
The other eligible teams were the St. Francis-Xavier University X-men, the Bold and the Ontario Tech University Ridgebacks. A selection committee awarded the Stingers the final spot on March 9.
The Stingers finished the RSEQ regular season with a 14-2 record, their best since the 2011-12 season. They narrowly defeated the Université du Québec à Montréal Citadins in the semifinal before falling to the Gaiters in the final, 75-61.
Now, Concordia is aiming to be the second-straight eight-seeded RSEQ team to take home U Sports gold, after the Université Laval Rouge et Or pulled off the unthinkable in 2024.
However, the Stingers will have their work cut out for them. As the lowest seed in the tournament, Concordia gets the honour of facing the powerhouse University of Ottawa Gee-Gees right off the bat.
The Gee-Gees finished the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) regular season atop the standings with a 20-2 record, and took home the Wilson Cup as OUA champions. The Stingers defeated the Gee-Gees 80-70 in a non-conference exhibition game on Jan. 4, 2025.
Their quarterfinal matchup will take place on Thursday, March 13 at 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
