Box Score
MONTREAL -- Mariam Sylla registered her fourth "double-double" of the season as the No.9-ranked McGill women's basketball team coasted to an easy 66-43 win over last-place Bishop's at Love Competition Hall, Thursday.
 
The result snapped a two-game losing streak after back-to-back losses to Concordia last week. It was also McGill's ninth consecutive conquest over Bishop's dating back to a 56-45 loss on Nov. 26, 2011.

Sylla, a 6-foot-1, pharmacology sophomore from Guinea, registered game highs with a solid 13-point, 11-rebound performance in only 20 minutes of court time as the Martlets had a significant early lead. She made five of 12 shots from the floor and went 3-for-5 from the free-throw line.

"We were confident with our game-plan coming in," said Ryan Thorne in his 11th season as Martlets head coach. "We knew what our issues were and we fixed them over the last couple of days." 
 
Thorne didn't elaborate on the issues but turnovers was clearly the biggest hurdle with the absence of injured  point-guards Dianna Ros and Francoise Charest. Ros, a junior, returned to the starting lineup after sitting out the last two games with a leg injury. She didn't start but played 16 minutes and collected three points with a pair of rebounds, four assists and a steal.

Francoise, a starting senior, missed her third straight contest with a lower-body injury.

The Martlets committed 22 turnovers in this game, an improvement on the 30 and 37 miscues that they coughed up in the previous two contests. They had a huge 51-39 advantage on the glass and also forced Bishop's into 23 turnovers, 16 of them on steals.

McGill used a strong defensive effort to take a 10-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. "We know they like to penetrate so we tried to get in the gaps and not let them get there," added Thorne
 
The Martlet offence then exploded for 22 points in the second quarter taking a 32-18 lead into halftime. After the intermission, McGill kept their foot on the gas and had key production from the bench, widening the gap to 54-32 heading into the final stanza. Over the entire game, McGill's subs  outscored Bishop's bench 38-22.
 
Jennifer Silver, a 5-foot-11 freshman forward from Montreal, Que., was the highest scorer off the bench finishing with 11 points. Marie-Pier Bastrash, a sophomore guard from Trois-Rivieres, Que., was right behind her with 10 to go along with two rebounds, three assists and as many steals. Tiye Traore, a second-year forward from Sudbury, Ont., had a respectable eight points off the bench going perfect from the field (3-for-3) and the free-throw line (2-for-2).
 
Two freshmen -- Naomie Zitt-James of Ajax, Ont., and Toronto native Genevive Onyeka -- were the leading scorers for Bishop's with 10 points apiece. The Gaiters had only two leads in the game -- 2-0 and 5-4.
 
McGill, which led by as many as 20 points inthe fourth quarter, shot 32.8 per cent from the field (21/64), went 9-for-26 from three-point range and sank 15 of 19 from the line (78.9%). Their stingy defence forced Bishop's to shoot 27.1 per cent from the floor (16/59) and 3-for-13 from beyond the arc. The Gaiters made 8 of 13 attempts from the line.
 
These two teams will battle again Saturday at the Mitchell Gym in Lennoxville, Que. Tip-off is slated for 6 p.m. and the game will be webcast on the Bishop's website  McGill (7-2) will be looking to move past Concordia (7-3) in a tight RSEQ conference race while the cellar-dwelling Gaiters (0-9) will still be in search of their first victory.  
 
MARTLET MURMURS: All 11 Martlets who dressed saw at least 12 minutes of court-time and had at least one rebound...Nine of them made it on the scoresheet, eight were credited with at least one assist and seven registered at least one steal.


SOURCE:
 
Ryne Bondy and Earl Zukerman
McGill Sports Info Office
514-398-7012