MONTREAL -- Sirah Diarra registered a "double-double" as visiting McGill clipped Concordia 58-55 to collect their first win of the season in women's basketball, Saturday, at the Loyola campus

The result halted a five-game losing streak for Martlets and improved their regular season record to 1-3. The 58 points on offence ended a string of five consecutive sub-50-point games.

The teams were tied 15-15 after the opening quarter but McGill took a 32-28 lead into halftime. They came out strong after the intermission, outscoring the Stingers 15-9 in the third stanza. Concordia made a late comeback attempt, outscoring the visitors 18-11 in the last quarter. The Stingers jumped into an early seven-point lead but McGill fought back and led by as much as 10 in the third quarter.

"The girls really executed today and played very well," said Martlets bench boss Ryan Thorne, whose troops had a 40-27 edge in rebounding. "The biggest thing was team play, which had been missing from our game. We had been playing selfish, like a bunch of individuals, but that changed today. One of the biggest indicators of the is the amount of assists and we had a lot more today. We had contributions from all of our "bigs" and all of our guards and that was a big factor."

In fact, McGill was credited with 17 assists, their highest in their four regular season contests to date and their second-highest total overall, after the 25 apples collected in a preseason win over Acadia, seven games ago.

Diarra, a second-year transfer from Clemson, was two points shy of a career-high. The six-foot-1 centre from Longueuil, Que., tallied season-highs in both points (22) and rebounds (15) in 30 minutes of court time. She added two steals, a pair of assists and one blocked shot. Diarra shot a red-hot 9-for-18 from the floor, including 2-for-4 in trey-shooting and went 2-for-2 from the line.

"Diarra really stepped up and played a great all-around game, scoring, rebounding and defensive standpoint." said Thorne. "She was a beast on the boards and showed that she can be one of the top players in the league."

She was one of three Martlets to reach double-digits in scoring, along with Montrealer Nadege Pluviose (11) and Charlotte Clayton (10) of Newmarket, Ont.

Point-guard Gladys Hakizimana added seven points but the fifth-year Montrealer left the game early in the third quarter after being struck in the face and suffering what appeared to be a minor eye injury. She did not return and only saw 21 minutes on the court.

"We had a good comfortable lead until Gladys went down and then the game went back and forth," noted Thorne. "We sent in Delphine St-Cyr-Robitaille off the bench to replace here and she held down the fort in the last quarter."

Geraldine Cabillo-Abante, a fifth-year guard from St-Laurent, Que., contributed five points, four assists and a steal,while seeing duty for the full 40 minutes. It was the most by a Martlet since Alex Kiss-Rusk played 44 minutes in a 79-76 double overtime victory at Laval, Feb. 23, 2017.

Leading the way for Concordia was Caroline Task and Myriam Leclerc, with 16 points apiece.

McGill shot 32.8 per cent from the floor (21/64) and 29.6 from three-point range (8/27) but made only 8-of-14 from the line.

Concordia shot 33.3, 31.8 and 66.7, respectively.

It marked the first time ever that McGill and Concordia had hooked up for a rare "split twin-bill", with the women's game on one campus, followed by the men's game on the other campus. It it paid off with a doubleheader sweep as the the McGill men won 90-77 downtown at Love Competition Hall.

McGill (1-3) travels to Laval (2-1) on Thursday, Nov. 28 at 6 p.m. Concordia (1-3) plays next on Nov. 30 at UQAM (2-2).

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