Holly Stewart

The McGill Redmen defeated the UQAM Citadins 78-67 at Love Competition Hall on Saturday night to improve to 3-1 on the season. The team now shares the QUBL division lead with Laval (3-0) and Concordia (3-1). Sophomore centre Greg Gause scored a career-high 24 points and standout freshman Simon Bibeau added 16 as McGill continued its strong play under first-year coach Dave DeAveiro.

Coming off a tough 72-68 loss at Concordia on Friday, in which the Redmen were out-rebounded by a staggering  33-17 margin, McGill hit the boards hard on Saturday managing 41 rebounds to the Citadins 29.

“Today, we were playing the number one rebounding team in the country,” DeAveiro said. “We knew if we didn’t rebound it was going to be a long night for us, so that was our focus.”

The Redmen controlled the tempo of game from the opening tip as they jumped out to a 23-17 lead after the first quarter, and pushed ahead by as many as 14 points with 5:37 left in the half. Sophomore point guard Olivier Bouchard and centre Greg Gause demonstrated strong chemistry on offence, hooking up on a number of ball screens.

“We run a lot of two-man game ball screens with me and my point man Olivier,” Gause said. “That’s what we are looking for: if they switch, he takes the big man, or if they double, I got that shot right there in the short corner.”

Momentum switched, however, in UQAM’s favour at the end of the half, as McGill failed to use the shot clock to their advantage. McGill rushed their possessions, turned the ball over and took bad fouls. UQAM forward Gregory St-Amand and guard Eric Côté-Kougnima led the Citadins on a 18-7 run to shrink the McGill lead to 39-36.

The Redmen were obviously aggravated by their inability to put the game out of reach early.

“We have to understand how to play when we are winning by 10 or 12 or 14 points, we don’t have to come down and throw up quick shots. I was frustrated with that more than anything else,” DeAveiro said.  “We don’t know how to play when we’re winning. We are selfish. What we have to learn as a team is that it’s a different game than when you are up 10 or down 10 or up five or down five. That’s the thing that I talked to them about at halftime.”

McGill continued to play strong defence throughout the game. They forced UQAM star Eric Côté-Kougnima into bad shots late in the shot clock. Despite logging 38 minutes of playing time, Côté-Kougnima shot a miserable 2-10 from the field and 2-5 from the free throw line, turning the ball over three times.

McGill also got a better effort from their bench players on Saturday night, outscoring UQAM’s reserves by a margin of 26-15. Nicolas Langley, a 6’7″ forward from Golden, B.C., was a nice complement to Gause’s career day, tallying 12 points and six rebounds in just 21 minutes of play.

“[Langley and I] worked well together,” Gause said. “We were knocking our shots down, and it is tough to guard when we can do that.”

The Redmen were again able to pull away in the fourth quarter, increasing their lead to 11 with 5:22 left in the game. UQAM frantically tried to close the gap, but the deficit was ultimately too much for the Citadins, whose loss dropped them to 2-3 in the division.

DeAveiro has added a spark to the squad this season, creating intensity that was lacking in previous years. He seems to have the ability to light a fire under his players and has shown an adept ability to make effective adjustments during the game. DeAveiro’s record speaks for itself, at 210-127 overall during his 10 seasons coaching in the CIS.

“I think [Coach DeAveiro’s] good,” Gause said. “So far our season has proven that. We’ve won some big games, and are off to a great start to the season. Hopefully we can keep it up.”

McGill will look to build on its strong start on Friday, when the Redmen play third ranked Laval at home.