Les Stingers de Concordia ont subi une première défaite face aux Redmen de Mcgill lors de l'affrontement de samedi qui s'est soldé par la marque de 73-67. Les Martlets ont également remporté le match chez les femmes 61-50.

Stingers stung, deed is done, Martlet hoopsters back in first

Anneth Him-Lazarenko of Panama City scored a game-high 13 points as the McGill women's basketball team re-established themselves as a serious contender with a 61-50 conquest over Concordia before 462 at Love Competition Hall, Saturday.

The normally red-and-white clad Martlets dressed in special pink uniforms to support their third edition of "Shoot for the Cure", an annual CIS-wide basketball fundraiser for breast cancer.

It was McGill's seventh straight victory, including a pair of non-conference wins during the holidays. In league play, the Martlets have improved to 7-3 and have finally overtaken Concordia (6-3) atop the RSEQ standings, with the help of back-to-back wins over their arch-rivals

McGill has won seven of their last eight confrontations with Concordia, which has now dropped three straight after reeling off six consecutive victories to open the season.

"The first time we played each team in the league we were dealing with a lot of injuries but I think we are now establishing ourselves as the best team in the conference," said Ryan Thorne, in his ninth season as head coach of the Martlets."We have a good team that can run well in an open court but we still have a ways to go in the half-court when we need to score a basket, sometimes we're having trouble finding it. We'll try to clean that up and once we do, we'll be fine."

The Martlets, who never trailed, led 18-13 after the opening quarter, 27-23 at the half and 50-42 after three quarters.

Him-Lazarenko, the reigning league MVP who spent a large part of the first semester hindered by a high-ankle sprain, shot 5-for-12 from the floor, made 3-of-6 attempts from the line and had three rebounds.

McGill's well-balanced offence included sophomore Valerie L'Ecuyer, a 6-foot-2 guard from Mirabel, Que., who came off the bench to score a dozen points in 15 minutes of court-time. She grabbed six rebounds and was credited with one blocked shot. Francoise Charest of Quebec City contributed nine points, eight rebounds and three assists while seeing a game-high 34 minutes of court-time. Teammates Marie-Eve Martin of Granby, Que., and Natalie Larocque of Quebec City added nine and eight points, respectively.

"We've got a lot of good players"

Kaylah Barrett of Brampton, Ont., and Alex Boudreau of Chicoutimi, Que., paced the struggling Stingers with a dozen points apiece.

McGill, which had a 41-30 edge in rebounds, shot 40.7 per cent from the floor and 38.9 from three-point range (7/18) but a jittery 42.9 from the foul-line (6/14). The Stingers replied with a feeble 27.0 success rate in field-goals and 28.6 from the arc. They made 10 of 13 free-throws.

Concordia will host cellar-dwelling Laval (3-6) on Feb. 3, while McGill travels to Bishop's (5-4) the same day. The Martlets will then return home to host Laval on Feb. 4.

Fortified Dufort paces Redmen to upset over undefeated Stingers

Freshman Vincent Dufort scored a career-high 16 points as McGill upset No.8-ranked Concordia 73-67 in a men's university basketball thriller before 462 at Love Competition Hall, Saturday.

It marked the first regular-season loss for the Stingers, who fell to 8-1 and snapped their three-game win streak over McGill, dating back to a 67-65 Redmen conquest on Jan. 21, 2011. The cross-town rivals have evenly split the last eight confrontations

Dufort, who contributed six rebounds and a pair of blocks, shot 5-for-8 from the field, including 3-for-5 from three-point range. He also went 3-for-4 from the line.

McGill, which improved to 6-4, led 16-12 after the opening quarter, led 32-26 at the half and 51-47 after three quarters.

The Stingers took early leads of 2-0 and 4-3 but never led again the rest of the way. McGill went up by as much as 10 but the Stingers whittled away and eventually found themselves trailing 69-67 with 22 seconds remaining.

They then intentionally fouled McGill's Tristan Renaud-Tremblay with 18 seconds remaining but the McGill junior, who missed numerous foul shots in a last-minute loss at Concordia a week earlier. This time, however, Renaud-Tremblay nailed both shots, then was fouled again and made both shots once more to close out the scoring. He finished with 10 points, including a 6-for-7 performance from the line, and was credited with four rebounds.

"It was a really big win for us in terms of gaining confidence for our young lineup," said McGill head coach David DeAveiro. "Last week's loss at Concordia was a tough pill to swallow in terms of how the game ended - being in control for most of the game and losing it at the end in the fashion that we did. It was a difficult situation for us and we talked about it all week in preparation for (this rematch). We watched a lot of film and learned from that about the things we were good at and what we needed to improve on. When the Stingers made their run again today (late in the fourth quarter), we could have folded but we didn't. My hat goes off to Tristan for knocking down those big free-throws at the end. They kind of picked on him a little (as the guy to foul) because he missed a few last week but this week he made the ones to seal the deal."

Also in double figures for the Redmen was Karim Sy-Morissette with 10 points. Team captain Winn Clark added nine points and pulled-down a game-high eight boards.

Three Stingers reached double figures, including Decee Krah (17), Kyle Desmarais (7) and Jerome Blake (12).

Concordia will host Laval (3-6) on Feb. 3, while McGill travels to Bishop's (1-8) the same day.

Tags: basketball , CIS , Concordia Stingers , Redmen McGill , RSEQ