Alice Walker

Throughout the year the Martlets had a bad habit of letting themselves fall behind early in games only to rely on extraordinary clutch play to pull out victories. They finally ran out of magic in the first round of the playoffs against a Laval Rouge-et-Or team that, despite an abysmal start, was dangerous in the second half of the season.

McGill came into the 2010-11 season returning all but three players from 2009-10’s QUBL playoff runner-up team and had accordingly high expectations.

Third-year forward Anneth Him-Lazarenko led the QUBL in scoring (15.6 points per game), was second in rebounds (8.6 per game), and led the league in field goal percentage (.541). She was named QUBL player of the year and earned a place on the first team All-Canadian, the only Martlet to do so in 14 years.

In the frontcourt, Helene Bibeau and Him-Lazarenko will be bolstered by the development of freshmen Valerie L’Ecuyer and Roya Assadi, who were among the all-too-few who performed well in the team’s playoff loss.

Sophomore guards Marie-Eve Martin and Francoise Charest, alongside Master’s student Natalie Larocque, shouldered the scoring load all season long in the backcourt. The team’s clutch reputation was mainly built off of Martin’s heroics from three-point range.

This is a difficult team to evaluate, because despite their regular season dominance, they failed to show up when it counted the most.

Still, the most successful season in Martlet basketball history shouldn’t be discounted because of 40 mistake-riddled minutes. Another year’s experience will afford one of McGill’s better teams an opportunity to win the QUBL playoffs and advance to nationals.

No Martlet will graduate this semester, and next year the team will enjoy the services of former Laval captain Eve Marquis-Poulin, who was a red-shirt transfer this season. With a long offseason to think about what went wrong in the playoffs, this is a team that should be primed for a huge year.

Record: 13-3

Co-MVPs: Marie-Eve Martin and Anneth Him-Lazarenko

Player to Watch: Valerie L’Ecuyer