MONTREAL -- Isaiah Cummins of Oshawa, Ont., only had one field-goal but made it count, making a tough lay-up with 18 seconds remaining to give McGill a come-from-behind 62-60 victory over visiting UQAM as the Quebec university men's basketball campaign finally got underway, Thursday, at Love Competition Hall.

It was the 118th season-opener for the Redmen, who have now won 24 of the past 28 contests against the Citadins and hold a lifetime 42-24 head-to-head advantage overall, including a 26-9 home-court record versus UQAM. 

McGill got off to a great start with a 23-11 lead after the opening quarter and at one point held a 17-point advantage early in the second but the Citadins chipped away to win the final three stanzas, 13-12, 19-13 and 17-14, respectively.

UQAM finally took their first lead of the game at 58-56 with only 90 seconds remaining and made it a four-point spread with just under a minute to go. But McGill's Avery Cadogan, a senior from Winnipeg, hit a key trey on his only attempted bucket, with 31 seconds remaining, narrowing the gap to 60-59.

That set the stage for the winning basket by Cummins, a 6-foot-2, 175-pound point-guard, who also converted a free-throw to make it a three-point play. The computer science senior came off the bench to play 21 minutes and finished the game with four points, three of them in the final 18 seconds.

McGill point-guard Alex Paquin of Candiac, Que., posted a game-high 20 points. He shot 7-for-20 from the floor, including a 2-for-9 effort from downtown. He went 4-for-4 from the line and contributed four rebounds, with a pair of assists and a steal in 35 minutes of court-time.

Levi Londole of LaSalle, Que., a second-year transfer from the NCAA's Northwest College, came of the bench to contribute 13 points and nine rebounds.

"In these (last-minute) situations, veterans are the guys that have been through this before and they're the ones who you rely on the most," said McGill bench boss David DeAveiro, who improved to 172-115 in 287 games over his nine seasons with the Redmen. "Levi and Isaiah haven't played a lot of minutes for us so we count on them to play some (quality) minutes. I though that Levi had some good energy but had a difficult matchup today and Isaiah had some opportunities (earlier) but the ball didn't drop for him (until his last shot).

"It's a game of making big shots... They came at us (in the second half) and we were on our heels. They were in our space a little bit and we're not used to playing like that. So those are things that we'll get better at as we go along and when we get Sam Jenkins back in our lineup, that will help as well."

Jenkins, a 6-foot-4 sophomore who became a starter in his freshman campaign, was kept out of the lineup with an undisclosed injury.

UQAM had four players reach double digits in scoring, including Charles Miller (14), Jerry Joseph (13), Alix Lochard (10) and Christopher Adu (10). Joseph and Lochard both registered double-doubles, contributing and and 12 rebounds apiece.

McGill shot a 41.1 per cent from the field (23/56) and only went 4-for-18 from the arc but shot an impressive 12-for-14 from the charity stripe. The Citadins, on the other hand, struggled, shooting 29.6 per cent (21/71) and  28.1 (9/32), respectively. They only made nine of 15 freebies. What kept them in the game was a favourable 21-13 turnover ratio, including a 10-5 margin in steals.

The Redmen, who had a 26-18 edge in points off the bench, had a 39-36 advantage in rebounds and a 4-0 difference in blocked shots.

"I think that every game in our league might turn out to be one like this," added DeAveiro. "All five teams are evenly matched. They're going to rely on their veterans and hope that their rookies can contribute."

McGill (1-0) gets a day to recover before making the 250-kilometre trek to Laval (0-1) for a Saturday night game that is slated to be streamed live at 8 p.m. The Rouge et Or opened their season Thursday, with a 75-67 overtime loss at Concordia (1-0). UQAM (0-1) plays at Bishop's (0-0) on Saturday evening.

 

2018-19 RSEQ Men's Basketball Standings • Classement de la saison régulière du basketball (m)

Pos	Team/Équipe	GP/MJ	W/V	L/D	PF/PP	PA/PC	PCT/MOY	GBL/Diff.	PTS
1	McGill	1	1	0	62	60	1.000	0.0	2
2	Concordia	1	1	0	75	67	1.000	0.0	2
3	Bishop's	0	0	0	0	0	0.000	0.5	0
4	UQAM	1	0	1	60	62	0.000	1.0	0
5	Laval	1	0	1	67	75	0.000	1.0	0