Box Score
MONTREAL -- Mariam Sylla notched a "double-double" and scored her 500th career point in regular season play as No.3-ranked McGill swamped the Bishop's Gaiters 85-30 in CIS women's basketball at Love Competition Hall, Thursday.  It was the highest offensive output and the fewest points allowed this season for the Martlets, who stretched their win streak to five and improved their unblemished RSEQ conference record to 5-0.

The victory was McGill's 13th in a row over the Gaiters, dating back to a 56-45 loss on Nov. 26, 2011. McGill played strong two-way basketball in all four quarters. They jumped out to a 23-6 lead at the end of the first and had a 39-14 margin by halftime.  Following the break, McGill keep their foot on the gas, outscoring Bishop's 19-5 and 27-11 in the third and fourth quarters, respectively.

Sylla, who hails from Conakry, Guinea, entered the game with 491 career points in RSEQ play and finished it with 503 points in 36 career contests for a 14.0 average. She tallied a dozen points on this night despite a season-low 17 minutes of court-time. Sylla normally averages 31 minutes per game but not on this night as the game was well in hand after the first quarter. The 6-foot-1 junior forward shot 4-for-11 from the field and 4-for-5 from the free-throw line. She added a game-high 13 rebounds with one steal and a blocked shot .
 
"She is an All-Canadian and our best player," said McGill head coach Ryan Thorne. "If we are going to do well it has to go through her, so as long as she is being productive and playing with high energy we will be successful."
 
The Martlets bench had another stellar soiree, outscoring the Bishop's subs by a lopsided 46-16 margin. Stephanie Blais, a 6-foot-2 forward from Sherbrooke, Que., tied for a game-high and led all bench players with 13 points, on a 5-for-11 shooting effort. She had two treys and knocked down 1-of-2 from the line. Montrealer Jennifer Silver and Tiye Traore, a junior from Sudbury, Ont., each chipped in seven points and newly-added guard Marie-Pier Bastrash, a third-year medical student who just recently returned to the team for the winter semester, put up a half-dozen points in her season debut.
 
"We played a lot of people today," added Thorne. "Maybe that is something I need to learn from and get more people out there because they can all contribute."
 
Starting point-guard Diana Ros, a senior from Montreal, matched Blais with 13 points to go along with five assists and three rebounds.  Alex Kiss-Rusk, a third-year forward from Beaconsfield, Que., was the fourth Martlet player to reach double figures. She scored 11 while adding eight rebounds and three blocks.
 
McGill shot 43.5 per cent from the field (30/69), went 6-for-15 from three-point range and sank 19 of 26 from the line (73.1%). Bishop's connected on 21.1 per cent from the floor (12/57), made only one of 11 from beyond the arc and sunk five of nine attempts from the charity stripe.
 
The Martlets tight defence also forced Bishop's into 25 turnovers, 10 of them on steals.
 
"I thought our energy was good tonight," mentioned Thorne in his final post-game thoughts. "Coming back from our Christmas break, where we played tight with the number one ranked team in Windsor, gave us that level of motivation that is needed down the stretch as we now understand how we have to play to be an elite team."
 
Ashley White, a sophomore from Cambridge, Ont., led the Gaiters with eight points, while sophomore Valerie Tremblay of Baie Comeau, Que., pitched in six.
 
These two teams will battle again on Saturday at the refurbished Mitchell Gym in Lennoxville, Que. Tip-off is slated for 6 p.m. and the game will be webcast. McGill (5-0) will be looking to stay undefeated in conference play while the cellar-dwelling Gaiters (0-5) will still be in search of their first victory.

MARTLET MURMURS: Projecting Sylla's career scoring average (14.0 ppg) over a possible 43 more regular season games that she could play if she suits up for every outing over a five-season span, she is on pace to tally 1,104 career points in 79 league contests... The McGill all-time scoring leader in regular season play is Vicky Tessier, a five-time all-Canadian and Hall of Fame inductee who tallied 1,248 points in 63 Quebec league contests, an average of 19.8 points per game, from 1992 to 1997... Tessier also holds the school's overall record with 2,564 points in 139 games, an average of 18.4 per outing.


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