Box Score  

MONTREAL -- Montrealer Adrian Hynes-Guery scored 24 points as McGill rallied from a 15-point deficit to defeat Bishop's 77-74 in a heart-thumping RSEQ men's basketball championship final before a record crowd of 1,023 at Love Competition Hall, Saturday.

GAME STATS: http://www.sportetudiant-stats.com/universitaire/basketball-m/stats/1213/sm03.htm

It was McGill's 21st conference title overall but their first since 1986, when they advanced to a CIS regional tournament. The Redmen are scheduled to depart on Wednesday for the CIS Final Eight in Ottawa, March 6-10. It will be their first appearance at the CIS national tourney since 1979 and they will be bidding for their first-ever national title.

Combined with the McGill Martlets 51-48 home-court victory over Concordia in the Quebec women's final earlier in the day, it marked the second time in school history that both McGill basketball teams had won a conference title in the same season, the other occurrence happening in 1985-86.

Bishop's led 23-14 after the opening quarter and 42-28 at halftime, then took what appeared to be an insurmountable 49-34 lead less than three minutes into the second half. But McGill narrowed the gap to 61-55 by the end of the third quarter and finally grabbed the lead at 68-67 with 4:04 remaining in the game on a three-point play by Hynes-Guery.

The lead changed hands four times in the final four minutes and the Gaiters bounced back to take a 74-70 advantage with 2:20 left but McGill rallied the troops again. Hynes-Guery scored the winning basket with 67 seconds remaining, draining his second trey of the game to put McGill ahead 75-74.

Hynes-Guery, a first-year transfer from the NCAA's American International College, made only four of 15 shots from the field but shot an impressive 14-for-16 from the foul line.

"My heart was beating, the pressure was on, the game was close and luckily we were able to pull through and get this win, it feels good," said Hynes-Guery, a 6-foot-3, 185-pound point-guard who is majoring in physical and health education. "Our defence stepped up in the second half and that was the key to victory. We played all those games throughout the season to get to the playoffs. The season really comes down to two playoff games and luckily we had the home court advantage based on how we played throughout the season. We had our fans with us and we're able to get the championship for them."

Teammate Simon Bibeau, a junior guard from St. Bruno, Que., came off the bench to score 12 points and Vincent Dufort of Smiths Falls, Ont., added nine points with 10 rebounds. Aleksandar Mitrovic, a native of Belgrade (Serbia), also contributed nine points and Bermuda-born Te'Jour Riley had eight points and as many rebounds.

Rounding out the scoring for McGill's international lineup was Nathan Joyal (7) of St. Lazare, Que., team captain Winn Clark (6) of Mission Hills, Kansas, and Rodrigo Imperador (2), a native of Brazil.

"Everyone's heart was thumping in the last minute, we were pretty excited," said Clark, a chemistry and economics senior who had to leave the game for a few minutes in the opening quarter after a heavy, mid-air collision with Gaiters forward Jeremy Leonard-Smith. "We've been working hard all week and knew we had the confidence to come through at the end. Adrian hit some big shots down the stretch and we we're able to defend them when we needed to. The character of this team is incredible. Down the stretch Te'jour had multiple big rebounds, Simon hit big shots and Aleks hit a pair of big free-throws. Everyone just came together and played their butts off."

Four Gaiters reached double figures in scoring, led by 22 from Mike Andrews, a 6-foot-10, 235-pound centre from Oakville, Ont., who was named earlier this week as both, the conference's player of the year and most outstanding defensive player.

Tim Hunter of Baie d'Urfe, Que., added 17 for BU, going 5-for-8 from three-point range, making all five of his treys in the first half. Leonard-Smith, who hails from Ottawa, sunk 14 and Onnex Blackwood of Scarborough, Ont., had 10.

McGill, which held a 35-27 advantage in rebounds against a taller Bishop's squad, shot 34.9 per cent from the floor (22/63) and made seven of 21 three-pointers. They went to the foul-line a season-high 30 times and sunk 26 of them for a stellar 86.7 success rate.

The Gaiters connected on 40.0 per cent from the floor (27/66) and 47.4 from the arc (9/19) but in essence lost the game at the free-throw line where they shot just 55 per cent, making 11 of 20 attempts.

"I'm so thrilled for these kids, they've played so hard all year, they've battled and have been resilient throughout the season," said McGill bench boss David DeAveiro, who was coaching in his 100th game (54-46) over his three seasons with the Redmen.  "At halftime we talked about this being a great opportunity for us and we we're letting it slip away. So we just talked about bearing down on defence and made a couple of adjustments in the offensive end that made a big difference in the second half.

"I think that nerves we're part of the reason why we had a slow start and we didn't execute any of our game plan in the first half. So I don't know if our game plan wasn't a very good one or we just didn't execute it. But I think you saw a better team in the second half. We much more in control, running our offence and following our defensive concepts a little bit more. This group has been so resilient all year. They just believe in themselves and that is a big part of being successful."

REDMEN RAP: McGill has won conference titles in the following seasons: 1909-10, 1911-12, 1913-14, 1914-15, 1921-22, 1922-23, 1924-25, 1930-31, 1931-32, 1932-33, 1933-34, 1938-39, 1961-62, 1964-65, 1971-72, 1976-77, 1978-79, 1983-84, 1984-85, 1985-86 and 2012-13... The Redmen are 1-6 lifetime in three previous appearances at the CIS national tourney... In 1971-72: under head coach Sam Wimsner, they lost 84-67 to Acadia and lost 87-84 to Windsor... In 1976-77: under coach Butch Staples, they won their opener 78-68 vs. Laurentian, then lost 77-70 to Lakehead and lost 80-79 vs. Waterloo... In 1978-79: under Coach Staples, they lost 93-78 vs. York, then lost 90-80 vs. Windsor.... McGill has also a 2-4 record in three appearances at CIS regional tourneys (1984, 1985, 1986), where teams had to win twice in order to reach Nationals.

Newspaper Box Score
(03/02/13 17h00 at Love Competition Hall)
Attendance: 1,023 (a McGill record crowd)

MCGILL 77, BISHOP'S 74

BISHOP'S
Mike Andrews 9-15 4-8 22; Tim Hunter 6-13 0-0 17; Jeremy Leonard-Smith 5-12
2-2 14; Onnex Blackwood 3-6 4-6 10; Jonathan Bermillo 2-9 1-2 7; Jamil Abiad
1-3 0-0 2; Matt McLean 1-5 0-2 2; Jonathan Goyette 0-0 0-0 0; Patrik Kabongo
0-0 0-0 0; Scott Ring 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 27-66 11-20 74.

MCGILL
Adrian Hynes-Guery 4-15 14-16 24; Simon Bibeau 4-6 2-2 12; Aleksandar Mitrovic 2-4 4-4 9; Vincent Dufort 3-13 2-2 9; Te'Jour Riley 4-5 0-0 8;
Nathan Joyal 2-7 2-2 7; Winn Clark 2-12 2-4 6; Rodrigo Imperador 1-1 0-0 2;
Ave Bross 0-0 0-0 0; Christian McCue 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-63 26-30 77.

BISHOP'S......................   23   19   19   13  -   74
MCGILL........................   14   14   27   22  -   77

3-point goals--BISHOP 9-19 (Tim Hunter 5-8; Jeremy Leonard-Smith 2-5;
Jonathan Bermillo 2-4; Jamil Abiad 0-2), MCGILL 7-21 (Adrian Hynes-Guery
2-5; Simon Bibeau 2-3; Vincent Dufort 1-6; Nathan Joyal 1-4; Aleksandar Mitrovic 1-2; Winn Clark 0-1). Fouled out--BISHOP-Scott Ring, MCGILL-None.
Rebounds--BISHOP 27 (Mike Andrews 7), MCGILL 35 (Vincent Dufort 10).
Assists--BISHOP 10 (Jeremy Leonard-Smith 3; Scott Ring 3), MCGILL 13
(Aleksandar Mitrovic 3; Winn Clark 3; Vincent Dufort 3). Total fouls--BISHOP
21, MCGILL 18. Technical fouls--BISHOP-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