MONTREAL -- It wasn't pretty but certainly proved effective as the McGill Martlets rallied from a nine-point deficit to stun No.1-ranked Laval 50-42 as the RSEQ university women's basketball conference resumed play Wednesday, at Love Competition Hall, after a five-week break for exams and holidays.

McGill led 13-11 after the opening quarter but was outscored 15-5 in the second stanza, heading into the intermission down 26-18. A new-look Martlets squad came out at halftime, outscoring Laval 13-2 in the third and 19-14 in the final stanza.

"I think it was just us buckling down defensively," said McGill head coach Ryan Thorne of the second-half improvement. "We made some good stops and got some open opportunities. All their shots were contested ones and that was the difference. When you go up there against a team that can score from all angles you've just got to make sure their shots are tough ones -- that they're contested shots and not just open looks all over the place -- and that's what we were able to do."

Laval had a 30-29 edge in rebounds, an 18-25 advantage in turnovers, and stole 10 balls to the Martlets' eight. McGill held a 3-0 margin in blocked shots.

Marie-Love Michel, a physical education junior from Montreal, shot 5-for-6 from the field to lead the home side with 10 points, and pulled down three rebounds in 19 minutes of court time. Teammate Marika Guerin, a 5-foot-4 point guard from Sorel, Que., followed with eight points. The kinesiology junior was 3-for-7 from the floor, including 2-for-4 from beyond the three-point arc. She grabbed three rebounds, had one steal and three assists. Alex Kiss-Rusk, a 6-foot-4 centre from Beaconsfield, Que., only tallied six points but led all players with 13 rebounds, including 11 in the defensive zone. The psychology senior shot 3-for-6, blocked a game-high two shots, stole one ball and added an assist.

Frederique Laflamme, a 5-foot-10 guard and Jen Silver, a 5-foot-11 forward, were limited to just six and five points, respectively.

"Our 'bigs' have carried us all first semester so we worked on some things over the break to make sure we get some opportunities for our guards," noted Thorne of the scoring distribution. "Right now what I'm seeing as a result of that is that it's taking away from our bigs, so now I've got to do a better job of meshing the two.

"We were very methodical in how we were trying to prepare for this second semester. I think it's paid off so far, and now we've just got to make sure that what we do transfers over long-term and we get a better offensive output."

The game also marked the return of 5-foot-7 guard Gladys Hakizimana of Montreal, who had been out of the line-up with an undisclosed injury since the season opener on Oct. 11, 2016. The social work sophomore shot 1-for-9 from the field and drained two free throws to score four points. She was also credited with three assists, in addition to collecting a pair of rebounds and stealing one ball.

"It gives us another ball-handler, another leader, another person with calm out there, and a scorer, so that's really what we were missing," said Thorne of the defending RSEQ rookie of the year. "Our last game out we scored (only) 40 points. We had 50 here so that addition of 10 points was great."

Gabrielle Girard of Saguenay, Que., led the Rouge et Or with 13 points and three rebounds. The senior shooting-guard shot 4-for-11 from the field, including 3-for-5 on three-pointers, and sank both her free throws.

The Martlets shot a solid 41.7 per cent from the field (20/48), 27.3 from downtown (3-for-11) and went 7-for-10 from the stripe. The Rouge et Or connected on just 22.6 per cent from the field (14/62), including a 7-for-23 performance from beyond the arc (30.4 per cent), and also drained seven of 10 free throws.

McGill and Laval have now split their two meetings, including a 63-46 Rouge et Or victory in McGill's home-opener on Nov. 10. The teams will now focus on the rematch this Friday (Jan. 6) in the provincial capital. Their final confrontation will be the season finale in Quebec City on Feb. 23.

Laval (4-1) sits tied with UQAM (4-1) for first in the conference with eight points, while McGill (2-3) took sole possession of third place, behind UQAM (4-1) and just ahead of idle Bishop's (1-3) and Concordia (1-4).