Box Score
MONTREAL -- Anneth Him-Lazarenko of Panama City, registered a 'double-double" and led McGill to a nail-biting 51-48 victory over Concordia to capture the RSEQ women's basketball conference title for the second straight year, before a record home crowd of 1,023 at Love Competition Hall, Saturday.

GAME STATS: http://www.sportetudiant-stats.com/universitaire/basketball-f/stats/1213/sf03.htm

The Martlets will head out west next week, in a quest for their first ever national championship at the CIS Final Eight tourney, scheduled to be held in Regina, March 15-17.

McGill led 19-12 after the opening quarter, 32-23 at the half and 42-34 after three quarters but the Stingers whittled away in the final stanza and narrowed the gap to 50-48 with 17 seconds left on the clock, then were forced to foul in an attempt to get the ball back.

Him Lazarenko, a 5-foot-10 power forward who was raised in Ste. Dorothee, Que., scored 14 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. She shot 6-for-10 from the field and made half of her four attempts from the free-throw line.

Between her and power forward Mariam Sylla, a native of Guinea, who pulled down a game-high 15 rebounds (along with seven points), the dynamic duo racked up 27 rebounds, two more than the entire Stingers lineup as McGill finished with a mammoth 44-25 edge in rebounding.

"It was intense right from the beginning... especially in the rebounding," said Him-Lazarenko. "We knew we couldn't let No. 4 (Kaylah) Barrett just score at will, so we had to stop her. Then our main focus was to not throw the ball away. We tried to rebound and box-out and I think we did a pretty amazing job and I'm really proud of all the girls."

Barrett, who was named earlier in the week as the league's player of the year, was held to only eight points before fouling out early in the final quarter. After her fifth foul, the third-year guard from Brampton, Ont., lay on her back for a full minute, in the middle of the court, knowing that she had probably cost her teammates the game.

It was admittedly an emotional game for Him-Lazarenko, the fifth-year education senior, which would have been her last one in a McGill jersey had they lost. "I was actually focusing on playing for my dad," she said. "It was all for him because he gave me the strength to play this game the best I can."

McGill shot 34.5 per cent from the field (19/55), went 4-for-12 from three-point range and only 9-for-18 from the foul line. The Stingers shot even worse, connecting on just 29.9 per cent from the field, 12.5 from the arc and a paltry 45.5 from the line (5/11).

"We won ugly," said McGill head coach Ryan Thorne. "It was a defensive battle. They defended well, played our ball screens well and we just out-rebounded them. We made sure not to give them too many possessions but we won ugly with our defence. Anneth had a solid double-double and Mariam was big with rebounds today. We missed a few little ones and we were sloppy with the ball. But that's where our strength lies. Our guards basically live off our big girls when we go inside-out. It was a typical game for us but we just didn't shoot that well today."

Marilyse Roy-Viau of Mirabel, Que., was the only Stingers player in double figures with a game-high 18 points.

"It was a tough, physical game but we knew it was going to be tight like that." said McGill team captain Francoise Charest, a senior point-guard from Quebec City, who scored 10 points and played a game-high 39 minutes of court time. "It's always physical when we play Concordia. They bang and we bang, so it's fair in that respect. They can hit the big shots but we kept them away and won it because of that. It was a big win, just amazing and I can't wait to go back to the Nationals."

MARTLET MURMURS: This was the Martlets eighth conference title since the Quebec league was formed in 1972-73... McGill won the provincial banner in 1973-74, 1985-86, 1987-88, 1992-93, 1994-95, 1995-96, 2011-12 and 2012-13...McGill is looking to become only the third CIS women's basketball champion from Quebec (Bishop's won twice: in 1983 and 1984)... In seven previous trips to the CIS championship, the Martlets have posted a 5-12 record... In 1974, they finished fourth after losing to both Western (56-41) and Winnipeg (58-33)... In 1986, they finished tied for seventh after losing to both Lethbridge (66-61) and Dalhousie (74-72)... In 1988, they finished sixth after losing to Victoria (85-52), defeating Laurentian (63-56) and losing to Lethbridge (84-65)... In 1993, they finished tied for seventh after losing to both Laurentian (84-65) and Western (73-65)... In 1995, they finished fifth after losing to Manitoba (75-61), defeating Memorial (73-64) and defeating Victoria (64-59)... In 1996, they finished third after defeating Victoria (68-60), losing to Toronto (71-68) and defeating Western (75-72 in OT)... Last year, McGill finished tied for seventh after losing to both UBC (65-43) and Saskatchewan (58-53).

Newspaper Box Score
RSEQ WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
(03/02/13 14h00 at Love Competition Hall)

MCGILL 51, CONCORDIA 48


CONCORDIA
Marilyse Roy-Viau 8-21 1-2 18; Ashley Clarke 4-15 0-0 9; Kaylah Barrett 2-11
4-6 8; Tina Mpondani 3-9 0-2 6; Alex Boudreau 1-6 0-0 3; Tamara Pinard-Devos
1-3 0-1 2; Richelle Gregoire 1-2 0-0 2; Serginha Estime 0-0 0-0 0; Cynthia
Suissa 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-67 5-11 48.

MCGILL
Anneth Him-Lazarenko 6-10 2-4 14; Francoise Charest 2-11 5-8 10; Marie-Pier Bastrash 3-7 1-2 9; Mariam Sylla 3-8 1-4 7; Gabriela Hebert 2-7 0-0 5;
Valerie L'Ecuyer 2-3 0-0 4; Arianne Duchesne 1-2 0-0 2; Helene Bibeau 0-3
0-0 0; Kizzy Clarke 0-1 0-0 0; Dianna Ros 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 19-55 9-18 51.

CONCORDIA (W).................   12   11   11   14  -   48
MCGILL........................   19   13   10    9  -   51

3-point goals--CONCORDIAUNIVERSITY 3-24 (Ashley Clarke 1-10; Alex Boudreau
1-4; Marilyse Roy-Viau 1-7; Tamara Pinard-Devos 0-1; Kaylah Barrett 0-2),
MCGILL 4-12 (Marie-Pier Bastrash 2-4; Gabriela Hebert 1-4; Francoise Charest
1-3; Dianna Ros 0-1). Fouled out--CONCORDIAUNIVERSITY-Kaylah Barrett,
MCGILL-None. Rebounds--CONCORDIAUNIVERSITY 25 (Tina Mpondani 8), MCGILL 44
(Mariam Sylla 15). Assists--CONCORDIAUNIVERSITY 2 (Tamara Pinard-Devos 2),
MCGILL 5 (Francoise Charest 2; Dianna Ros 2). Total
fouls--CONCORDIAUNIVERSITY 20, MCGILL 15. Technical
fouls--CONCORDIAUNIVERSITY-None, MCGILL-None.

SOURCE:

Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
514-398-1956 (Fax)
MOBILE SITE: http://mcgillathletics.ca/mobile/index.aspx
WEBSITE: www.mcgillathletics.ca
TWITTER: Earl Zukerman?iid=am-22609974913244245778954363&nid=23+recipient&uid=314779640&utm_content=profile">@EarlZukerman
E-MAIL: earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca