Ryan Reisert

The McGill Redmen made a statement Thursday night, knocking off the number seven seed Concordia Stingers at Love Competition Hall. In front of a large crowd left over from the Martlets’ “Shoot for the Cure” game earlier in the evening, the Redmen (4-3) dispatched their cross-town rivals by a score of 70-64. The win pulled McGill closer to Concordia (6-3) in the RSEQ standings.

Freshman guard Simon Bibeau led the way with 22 points, and continued to establish himself as the number one option on the exciting Redmen. Centre Greg Gause and sophomore guard Winn Clark contributed to the winning effort as well, dropping 12 points each. Olivier Bouchard joined in with 10 points of his own. McGill Head Coach Dave D’Aveiro was impressed by the work of his young stars and added that the team benefited from the support of the big crowd.

Last time McGill faced Concordia, the Redmen succumbed to a hard-fought four point loss, but they were determined to reverse that result in front of the raucous crowd. Thursday’s win put them in contention for the top spot in the conference. The team continues to gain experience as they win more games and are looking more and more like a contender with each passing contest.

The game began cautiously, with both teams trying to feel each other out before getting into a good rhythm. The teams traded buckets and went cold for long periods of time, with a pair of two-minute droughts where neither team could find the basket. The action got going in the second quarter as the two sides began to find their game. With three minutes left in the half, the Redmen turned on the jets and went into halftime on a 10-2 run on back-to-back triples from Bibeau and Bouchard.

Concordia fought back in the third quarter, bringing the score to 47-45 going into the final frame. McGill was unfazed, however and with five minutes to go, Clark and Bouchard nailed threes and Gause hit two free throws for an 8-0 run and a nine point lead that put the game out of reach. An emphatic dunk by the 6’8″ Gause in the last minute sealed the victory over their city  rivals and brought the crowd of 750 to its feet. After the game, when asked about the dunk, Gause seemed more interested in talking about his team in general and the way they stuck to their gameplan. In particular, he and the rest of the team took pride in getting to loose balls and dominating the Stingers on the glass.

On the statistical side, the Redmen shot just 35.1 per cent from the field while Concordia was slightly better at 39.7 per cent. The edge came from McGill’s success beyond the arc—draining a third of their shots from long range—as well as winning the rebound battle. McGill dominated the evening on the boards, pulling down 19 offensive rebounds to Concordia’s 10 and leading the total tally 43-36. Every McGill player registered at least three rebounds on the night, showing the depth of the team and Coach D’Aveiro’s desire to get everyone involved.

For Concordia, both Kyle Desmarais and Evens Laroche registered double-doubles. The number seven team in the nation was hurt, however, by the loss of junior forward Evens Laroche after just 12 minutes to what looked like an ankle injury.

McGill hit the road Sunday against conference-leading Laval (7-1), losing by a single point, 85-84. Up next is a rematch with the Stingers and another in-Montreal game at UQAM (3-4). The Redmen return to Love Competition Hall on Friday, February 4 against the Laval Rouge-et-Or in what should be a stiff test.