MONTREAL -- Freshman Anthony Fisiru of Gatineau, Que., performed with operatic-like precision, scoring 21 points as the McGill University men's basketball team cruised to a 91-69 victory over the Université du Québec à Montréal Citadins at Love Competition Hall, Saturday. 

The result was McGill's highest-scoring game of the regular season and avenged a 73-69 loss to UQAM on Thursday, when the Citadins rallied late. McGill now has a 2-1 edge in the season series between the cross-town rivals, with one game remaining.

It improved McGill's record to 7-6 and moved them past UQAM (6-7) into sole possession of second place in the Quebec division. With only three regular-season games left before playoffs, the Redmen have virtually assured themselves of at least a tie for a playoff berth. Their magic number to clinch a spot is one -- either a McGill win or a loss by any of the three teams below them in the standings.
 
UQAM led the first quarter 15-13, however McGill bounced back to win the second stanza by a whopping 32-11 margin to take a 45-26 advantage into halftime. The 32 points was McGill's highest output in a quarter this season and the most since dropping 35 in the third quarter of a 105-67 victory over Bishop's in the conference semifinal last spring. The team record is 36 set in a 105-59 win over UQAM on Jan. 6, 2018.

McGill took the third quarter 26-23 and both teams poured in 20 points over the final stanza.

"We came out more aggressive today, especially in the open court, we were attacking the basket much more," said head coach David DeAveiro, who now has a 180-121 record in 301 games overall at McGill. "We talked about that in our pre-game (discussion). We wanted to be more aggressive and assertive in what we were doing. Our defence was good -- I think we held them to 11 points in the third quarter. (At halftime), we challenged our kids to win the second half. A 19-point lead was great but we wanted to play through it and keep playing (at that pace) because sometimes the hardest thing to do, especially against UQAM, is to play with the lead."
 
Fisiru, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound rookie guard, finished one point shy of his career-high 22 accomplished in a win over Bishop's on Jan. 26. He shot 8-for-11 from the floor, was 2-for-4 from beyond the arc and made three of four free-throw attempts. The 20-year-old economics major also tallied five rebounds, a pair of steals and two assists.He was one of four Redmen to reach double figures.

"Anthony got the message after sitting out the second half of the last game against UQAM. Sometimes he is almost too unselfish (with the ball) and we want him to be more selfish. He has a point-guard's mentality and we're trying to turn him into more of a scorer's mentality... He's more of a solid fundamental guy who is really a point-guard playing in a No.2 man's body."
 
Noah Daoust of Dorval, Que., added 16 points for the home side, shooting 2-for-4 from beyond the arc and 5-for-6 from the line. He also had four rebounds, two assists and a steal in 27 minutes of court time. Sam Jenkins of Hamilton, Ont., tallied 15 points, was perfect on his five free-throw attempts and contributed eight rebounds, two assists and four steals. Teammate Quarry Whyne registered 10 points.
 
Leaders for the Citadins were Hugo Adin (21 pts) and Jerry Joseph (11 pts).
 
McGill shot 51.6 per cent from the field (33/64), 10-for-22 from downtown and went 15-for-21 on the free-throw line (71.4 per cent). The Citadins shot 36.9 per cent from the field (24/65), 28.6 from beyond the arc (8/28), and went 13-for-17 from the charity stripe.

The Redmen had a statistical edge in most categories, including 34-32 difference in rebounds, a 12-9 margin in steals and a favourable 18-12 advantage in turnovers. UQAM, which plays next on Feb. 16 at Laval (5-8), only won the blocked shots category by a 2-0 count.
 
McGill returns to the court on Valentine's Day for a romantic rendezvous against cross-town rival Concordia (10-3). The Stingers, who sit atop the Quebec division and are ranked No. 10 nationally, have won all three meetings thus far, 87-81, 86-69 and 69-61. They will host the match-up at John Dore Court. Tip-off will follow the women's game and is slated for 8 p.m.

"We've talked about it all year about how we want to be playing our best basketball in February and I think we're starting to do that," added DeAveiro. "I know we lost a tough one on the road at UQAM on Thursday but we played well enough to win and were giving ourselves chances to win games. That's what we want to do. So going into Concordia, we're not going to change the way we play... it will be a hostile environment, which is great for us (to learn from) and we'll continue to play hard and do the things we like to do, both offensively and defensively, and see if we can play with the best team in the league."

REDMEN RAP: Avery Cadogan, McGill's second-leading scorer, was limited to just five points and 16 minutes of court-time before fouling out with 8:26 remaining...  Greg Trahan fell awkwardly on a defensive manoeuvre only 28 seconds into the second quarter and did not return. The junior point-guard suffered an apparent leg injury and was carried off the court by his teammates. He had only played three minutes before suffering the injury.


2018-19 RSEQ Men's Basketball Standings
(16-game schedule, top four qualify for playoffs)
 

Pos	Team/Équipe	GP/MJ	W/V	L/D	PF/PP	PA/PC	PCT	Diff.	PTS
1	x-Concordia	13	10	3	1063	976	0.769	0.0	20
2	McGill	13	7	6	918	900	0.538	3.0	14
3	UQAM	13	6	7	978	994	0.462	4.0	12
4	Laval	13	5	8	953	984	0.385	5.0	10
5	Bishop's	14	5	9	1069	1127	0.357	5.5	10

x-clinched playoff berth