It was a night of new beginnings for the Redmen basketball team as they opened up their Quebec University Basketball League season with an 82-65 victory over Bishop’s Gaiters on Saturday night. Freshman Simon Bibeau led the team with 18 points as McGill (1-0) delivered a win for Head Coach David D’Aveiro in his first regular season game behind the bench.
For a team full of new faces, the win on Saturday should help the confidence of this promising McGill squad. The Redmen started out cautiously, trading baskets with the Gaiters (0-1), and only led by four points at halftime before they pulled away with a 28-15 third quarter to put the game out of reach.
“We played well in stretches— I thought especially in the third quarter we came out and played some pretty good defence and executed our offence,” said Head Coach D’Aveiro. “We played fairly well throughout the game.”
The Redmen were led by two young Montrealers in Bibeau and second-year point guard Olivier Bouchard. Bibeau had five rebounds and a pair of steals to go along with his team-leading 18 points, while Bouchard contributed 15 points to the winning effort.
In the first half, both teams struggled in their first regular season game. Neither team shot well, and at the end of the first quarter the score was tied at 16-16.
The struggles continued into the second quarter, but with less than 20 seconds to go in the half, Bibeau hit a clutch three-pointer, grabbed a rebound, and made a buzzer-beating layup for a five point swing that gave McGill a four point edge and all the momentum going into the half.
In the second half, McGill came out flying and never looked back. They scored the first 12 points to build up a lead that would later swell to 25 points in the fourth quarter.
“To start the second half we attacked the rim a little more, played with more confidence offensively,” D’Aveiro said, “Defensively we had some steals and got some scores off them.”
Bouchard said the team owed a lot to their new coach.
“Coach told us that this was the time to impose our will on them, and we did,” he said. “We had to play hard defence and run on offence. We took good shots and we won.”
Neither team had a particularly good game shooting from the field. McGill only shot 38.8 per cent and Bishop’s finished with a weak 37.5 per cent. However, free throws played an important role in the Redmen’s victory as they got to the line often in the second half and hit 76.7 per cent of their free throws while the Gaiters shot a dismal 37.9 per cent from the charity stripe.
Michael White, the only senior dressed for McGill, had two highlight reel dunks that brought the crowd to its feet. White had 10 points and added six rebounds. Nicholas Nishikawa pulled down eight boards to lead McGill to a 41-33 rebounding advantage.
On the other side, Onnex Blackwood led the Gaiters with 18 points, while Alex Audette-Genier had 12 in just 19 minutes.
Despite the win, there’s still work to be done for the Redmen. D’Aveiro stressed patience with his young team and recognized that there will be a learning curve despite their performance in their first game.
“With a young team you’re going to make a few more mistakes than you would with a veteran team, so you’ve got to be patient,” he said. “You don’t want to make the same mistakes twice. We’ve never played with a lead of 20, so we need to work on playing with a lead.”
Bibeau, the star of the game for the Redmen, was happy to get off on the right foot.
“It’s kind of like the first year for everyone,” he said. “But we have lots of potential and I love what’s going on here. I’m loving the experience, with a new coaching staff and newcomers on the team it’s been easy to adapt. I made a great decision [to play for McGill].”
McGill and Bishop’s will meet again on Thursday night in Lennoxville. The Redmen’s next game at Love Competition Hall is on Saturday, November 27, against the UQAM Citadins.
