MONTREAL -- It took a century but Queen's finally got their revenge.
Sophie de Goede, did well, with a game-high 20 points, leading the visiting Gaels to a 77-55 victory over McGill in the women's basketball preseason opener at Love Competition Hall, Saturday.
The event kicked-off the 100th anniversary season of the
first-ever women's basketball game between two Canadian universities. McGill defeated Queen's the inaugural contest by a modest score of 21-16 on Feb. 6, 1920.
Queen's, which led from start to finish, jumped into a 20-10 lead by the end of the opening quarter but McGill narrowed the gap to 34-30 at halftime, which made for a promising second half. However, the wheels fell off for the home team, which was outscored 21-12 and 22-13 over the final two quarters.
McGill had a 41-35 edge in rebounding but the tale of the tape was all in the shooting.
Queen's connected on an impressive 46.4 per cent success rate from the field (26/56), while McGill shot a woeful 28.8 per cent (21/73). The Gaels went to the free-throw line a whopping 34 times and came away with 20 points. McGill, on the other hand, only made a dozen trips to the line and tallied just six points.
"We started out soft. We fought back to within four points by halftime but then did the same things to start the second half," said a disappointed McGill head coach
Ryan Thorne, who had to field a lineup without injured point-guard
Gladys Hakizimana. "We have to do a better job. There's got to be a sense of urgency that happens and a sense of pride. I don't think we had that today... especially playing in a (historic) game like this. There's got to be such an urgency, pride and desire to be your best and I don't think we were there today."
De Goede was one five Gaels to reach double digits, along with
Julia Chadwick (12 points and a game-high eight rebounds),
Emily Ritcey (11),
Michelle Istead (11) and
Isabella Belvedere (11).
Sirah Diarra led McGill with nine points off the bench. Teammates
Geraldine Cabillo-Abante and
Charlotte Clayton added eight points apiece and
Delphine Robitaille had seven.
This was the first matchup between these rivals since Oct. 22, 2017, when the Martlets came away with a 78-57 victory to capture their own Redbird Classic tournament.
Vicky Tessier, a McGill Sports Hall of Fame inductee who was a five-time All-Canadian and played from 1992 to 1997, served as a game ambassador for the Martlets
. Lisa Minutillo, a 2014 Queen's grad who went on to play and coach in France, served in a similar capacity for the Gaels.
McGill (0-1) will host three games next weekend, beginning with Ryerson on Thursday, Oct. 10 at 6 p.m., followed by the University of Northern British Columbia (Oct. 11) and Ottawa (Oct. 12). The latter two contests are slated for a 2 p.m. tip-off.
Queen's (1-0) is off for two weeks, until hosting their own Frank Tindall Tournament, Oct. 18-20, beginning with Concordia on Friday at 6 p.m.
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