MONTREAL -- Sam Jenkins scored 20 points as the McGill University men's basketball squad overwhelmed the visiting Bermuda national team 101-74 in preseason play at Love Competition Hall, Wednesday.

It was McGill's first ever confrontation with a national team from any country and the inaugural win of theIr 119th season after suffering three losses to NCAA Div. 1 teams. The result also marked McGill's first foray over the century plateau in 37 games, since a 105-67 semifinal victory over Bishop's on Feb. 28, 2018.

McGill -- which never trailed in the contest and had a staggering 56-23 rebounding advantage -- led 24-11 after the opening quarter. They extended that to 51-38 at the half and 79-53 after three, then backed off and won the final stanza by a 22-21 margin.

"Ball movement and sharing the ball was a point of emphasis for us (today)," said McGill head coach David DeAveiro.  "Trying to play with less dribbles, more ball and player movement. It's a work in progress but much better today. I was pretty pleased with that."

Jenkins, a 6-foot-5, 195-pound point-guard from Hamilton, Ont., shot 8-for-16 from the field. The 21-year-old physical education junior went 2-for-6 from three-point range and drained two of three attempts from the foul-line. He added four rebounds, one assist and a steal in 29 minutes of court-time.

Jenkins, who leads the team in preseason scoring with 17.3 points-per-game. was one of five McGill players to reach double figures in scoring and was joined by Quarry Whyne, Jamal Mayali and Charles Couture, who each tallied 14 points, while Levi Londole had 11.

Mayali, who is averaging 13.0 points after four games, missed most of the second half after taking a fall early in the third quarter and suffering what appeared to be a sprained wrist.

Bermuda had three players reach double digits, including Jaren Haley (23), Te'Jour Riley (20) and Linden Jackson (16).

It was a home coming of sorts for Riley, who played for McGill in 2012-13. The 6-foot-4 forward from Hamilton, Bermuda, shot 9-for-16 from the floor, went 2-for-5 from the line and added nine rebounds, three assists, one blocked shot and one steal.

McGill shot 46.3 per cent from the floor (38/82), went 8-for-29 from the arc and made 17 of 25 free-throws. Bermuda shot 40.3, 30.6 and 50 per cent, respectively.

They committed 19 turnovers, one more than the home side. McGill, which built up a 28-point lead in the third quarter, collected 34 points off the bench.

"Defending in the paint is something that we have to get better at," noted DeAveiro, who only dressed 10 players, two short of the standard. "Our on-ball, man-to-man defence needs to continue to improve, along with our help-side defence and our rotations. But we've been going pretty much every day for about (12 days) and these kids haven't had a break... Remembering it's only August and we're not trying to wear our guys down... we're going to give them two days off before we start our preparation on Saturday for Monday's game.

McGill will try to improve on their 1-3 preseason record on Monday, Aug. 19, when they host the University of Albany at Love Competition Hall. It will mark the third of five games for the Great Danes, who posted a 7-9 record last year in the nine-team America East Conference. Albany is also slated to play at Ottawa (Aug. 17), Carleton (Aug. 18), UQAM (Aug. 20) and Concordia (Aug. 21).

Bermuda, which dropped to 0-2 in their Canadian tour, including a 110-70 loss at Concordia on Aug. 13, will close out their visit with a game at UQAM on Aug. 16.

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SOURCE:

Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
Office: 514-398-7012
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca