MONTREAL -- Prince Oduro of Toronto registered a "double-double" as the visiting Siena College Saints erased an early 10-point deficit to topple McGill 79-71 in men's preseason basketball at Love Competition Hall, Wednesday.

Oduro, a 6-foot-8, 253-pound freshman, was one of three Canadians in the visitor's lineup and was reported to be recruited by 18 NCAA programs this summer. He collected a game-high 18 points and a dozen rebounds as Siena, an NCAA Div. 1 team from Loudonville, N.Y., improved to 1-1 on their three-game tour of eastern Canada. The Saints suffered a 73-66 setback to Carleton on Aug. 28 and will close out their cross-border excursion at Concordia on Aug. 31.

McGill, which opened an early 13-3 advantage before the game was four minutes old, led 22-17 after the opening quarter but Siena battled back to lead 35-31 at halftime. The Redmen came out strong again after the intermission, outscoring their visitors 27-20 in the third frame but Siena rallied once more as McGill unraveled by a 24-13 margin in the final stanza.

The deciding factor was at the free-throw line, where Siena went 22 for 27, compared to McGill, which only had 11 attempts and drained eight.

"There was a (large) difference (in free-throws) but we preach to our guys, that regardless of how the referees call it, we still dictate how we play and in the end, we didn't play as tough as we usually do," said McGill assistant coach Madhav Trivedi, who was handing most of the game decisions while bench boss David DeAveiro took a rare night "off", serving more as in an evaluative role on the Redmen bench. "Siena did some things to take us off our game, throw us off our rhythm, which worked. And our guys played into their hands."

Also scoring in double figures for Siena was Evan Fisher (17), Khalil Richard (16), Jordan Horn (11) and Roman Penn (10).

The result ruined a double-double effort by McGill senior Francois Bourque, who tallied 14 points and 11 rebounds in a losing cause. He was one of four Redmen to reach double-digits, along with seniors Noah Daoust (14 points) and Jenning Leung (10), in addition to freshman Jamal Mayali (10).

Another positive for McGill was their bench support, which outscored Siena by a whopping 37-7 margin, led by Daoust, who made six of 11 attempts, including a 2-for-5 effort from the arc.

Siena shot 44.3 per cent from the floor (27/61) but drained only three of 17 from three-point range. McGill connected on 42.2 per cent from the field (27/64) and hit on nine of 24 treys. The Saints held a 35-27 edge in rebounding, while McGill had slight advantages in turnovers (17-16), blocks (5-3) and steals (4-1).

The other two Canucks who joined Oduro on the Siena roster were Christian Bentley, a 6-foot-2 freshman guard from Brampton, Ont., and junior Kadeem Smithen, a 6-foot-3 guard from Ajax, Ont.

McGill, which dropped to 4-5 in preseason play against NCAA squads, will conclude their plethoira of cross-border confrontations when they play host to the Hofsta University Pride from Hempstead, N.Y., on Sept. 2 at 3 p.m.


SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (office)
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E-MAIL: earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca