Women’s Basketball: Stumble at the First Block

Stingers Drop Season Opener Versus UQAM Citadins

SportsJulian McKenzie — Published November 8, 2015 | Updated November 8, 2015 at 7:51pm

The natural thing to do for Gittens was to call a timeout and try to regroup her team. In the middle of the huddle, Gittens asked for more from her team’s defence, and with the game still in reach, perhaps Concordia could switch the momentum.

The Concordia Stingers women’s basketball team lost their first game of the season 64-49 to the UQAM Citadins this past Saturday evening at the Concordia Gymnasium. The Maroon and Gold have won one out of their last five regular season contests against the Citadins, dating back to last season.

Following a missed shot by UQAM after the timeout, the Citadins recovered an offensive rebound and Citadins guard Queteline Celestin scored on a three-point shot, giving her team an 11-3 lead.

The shots fell into the hoop with ease for UQAM that night. For the Stingers, they did not.

Three of UQAM’s players registered 10 points or more in their victory including centre Jessica Lubin, who scored 10 points, 11 rebounds, three blocks, and four steals.

“I did my job,” said Lubin. “I was just staying on my feet, trying to do my best and keeping the players in front of me.”

UQAM seemingly had no problem against Concordia’s offence, creating turnovers whenever the Stingers attempted to score. As a result, the Citadins scored 23 points off turnovers, compared to Concordia who only scored eight points.

“We didn’t play as a team, we didn’t have team effort, we played bad.” said Stingers forward Richelle Gregoire, who led her team with 16 points in the loss.

“We didn’t play as a team, we didn’t have team effort, we played bad.” said Stingers forward Richelle Gregoire, who led her team with 16 points in the loss.

“As a team, we played well,” said Lubin. “Everybody was helping everybody. We have great chemistry.”

Concordia found themselves in trouble as early as the first quarter as UQAM raced out to a 8-3 lead before the Stingers called their first timeout with 5 minutes 36 seconds left to play. Following the break in play, and Celestin’s three, UQAM would end the first quarter up 20-10.

The Stingers would add 13 more points in the second quarter but still trailed the Citadins 38-23 at halftime. Concordia’s Danielle Dimitrov scored two free throws with 35 seconds in the first half, and the Stingers wouldn’t score again until guard Aurelie d’Anjou Drouin scored with a little over three minutes left in the third quarter.

The Stingers found themselves down by as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter and while they tried to chip away at UQAM’s lead, the Stingers ended up losing the game by 15 points.

Despite the loss, Gregoire feels her team can put her season opening game loss in the rearview mirror.

“We’re going to bounce back,” said Gregoire.

Concordia’s next game will be on Friday, Nov. 13 at the Université de Laval Rouge et Or, while UQAM will play their next game at home against the Bishop’s Gaiters on Thursday, Nov. 12.