MONTREAL -- Alex Paquin of Montreal, poured in a game-high 23 points as McGill clipped Concordia 86-63 in RSEQ men's basketball at the John Dore Court, Saturday.

The Redmen, who put an end to Concordia's modest three-game win streak, clinched first place in the Quebec league for the sixth consecutive season. McGill, which dropped the season's first rendezvous versus ConU, has rebounded with three straight wins over the Stingers to win the season series over their cross-town rivals.  McGill has now won five of their last six match-ups against the Stingers and 15 of the last 22 .

In a game that featured eight lead changes early on, McGill led 27-21 after the opening quarter and took a 53-39 advantage into halftime. The Stingers won the third quarter 14-13 but McGill rebounded in the final stanza, winning that easily by a 20-10 margin. McGill shot a spectacular 52.3 per cent from the field (34/65), 31.8 from three-point range (7/22) and 73.3 from the foul line (11/15). Concordia shot 31.4 per cent (22/70), made six of 24 from beyond the arc and drained 13 of 20 from the line (65.0).

"We had a tremendous first half, offensively," said McGill head coach David DeAveiro."We also had some things that we don't like to give up defensively but when we're on the road and up by 14 going into the half, I thought that we did a really good job. In the second half, Concordia dug down on their defence and played a really tough third quarter but we found our rhythm again in the final quarter."

Paquin, a six-foot, 190-pound point-guard, was one of four Redmen starters to reach double digits in scoring. He shot 8-for-15 from the field, including a 3-for-7 performance from three-point range, and was a perfect 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. The first-year NCAA transfer, who played three seasons with American University in Washington, was also credited with three rebounds, seven assists and one steal.

"He's unbelievable, exceptional with the ball and can do things with the ball that we haven't had a guy do before," noted DeAveiro. "And when he starts to share the ball, he becomes a difficult guy to guard. We're still focussing on trying to get him to be a little better defensively. He such a good, creative player offensively that sometimes, he becomes a little too creative and tries to do things that he doesn't need to. But that's what great players do. They're creativity makes them great players."

Other high scorers for McGill included starters Francois Bourque (14 pts, 5 rbs), Dele Ogundokun (13 pts, 8 rbs, 6 assists, 5 steals) and Sebastian Beckett (9 pts, 3 rbs, 2 steals, 1 assist). Two others, starter Sam Jenkins and reserve Noah Daoust, each added nine points apiece.

The Redmen, who led by as much as 27 points, held a significant 41-25 rebounding edge and a favourable 19-17 margin in turnovers. Strangely, McGill had only 16 points off the bench, a season low for an effective group of subs that has reached the 50-point plateau three times.

"We've been doing a good job spreading the ball around," added DeAveiro. "We want to play with a high tempo and when we start sharing the ball, we get some open shots and start knocking them down. So I'm quite pleased the way the ball moved today.  I thought that our starting five played extremely well. Our bench just gave us enough today to support our starting five. But it's been the other way for most of the season, where our bench has been really good and the starters supported the bench. So it's nice to have that depth on our team and to see our starting five play well together."

Three Stingers scored in double figures, led by Ricardo Monge and Schneiders Suffrard, who tallied 14 points apiece. Jonathan Koud added a dozen.
 
McGill leads the RSEQ conference with an 11-2 record and three games left before playoffs. Should the Redmen win all of their remaining games, they would tie the single-season school record for victories in league play, matching the 14-2 mark posted in 2013-14.
 

2017-18 RSEQ Men's Basketball Standings (16-game schedule) • Classement de la saison régulière de basketball (m)

Pos	TEAM	GP	W	L	PF	PA	PCT	GBL	PTS
1	McGill	13	11	2	1161	870	0.846	0.0	22
2	Concordia	13	8	5	996	981	0.615	3.0	16
3	Laval	11	6	5	805	809	0.545	4.0	12
4	Bishop's	12	4	8	926	1013	0.333	6.5	8
5	UQAM	13	2	11	880	1095	0.154	9.0	4