MONTREAL – Jamal Mayali of Toronto, Ont., scored a team-high 17 points and Sami Al Uariachi from Morocco sank a winning trey with 35 seconds remaining as division-leading McGill bested the UQAM Citadins 70-65 to close out their RSEQ men's basketball schedule, Thursday, at Love Competition Hall.
 
Although McGill already claimed the Quebec league regular season pennant in its previous win (last week's 58-54 decision at Concordia), this result gave McGill a 2-2 record against UQAM, preventing the Citadins from sweeping both games at Love Competition Hall.
 
McGill concluded its regular season with a 12-4 record while UQAM (8-7) has one game left and can finish anywhere from second to fourth. What is confirmed is McGill will host a yet-to-be-determined fourth-place opponent in a sudden-death semifinal on Wednesday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. Their opponent would be either UQAM or Bishop's (7-8) depending on results of Feb. 22. The other semi will pit the second-place finisher against the third-seed and could feature Concordia (9-6) or UQAM.
 
McGill led 17-14 after the first quarter and 34-29 at halftime. The teams then matched shot for shot, the rest of the way, tying each of the last two frames with identical 18-18 scores. The Citadins led by as much as 61-54 in the final stretch before Al Uarichachi's long-range marker salted away the victory.
 
"Today we wanted to rest some guys because we had some players dealing with injury," said head coach David DeAveiro, whose bench outscored UQAM's subs 24-22. "Our starters have played a lot of minutes this year. They're fighting through injuries so it was important to give them a chance to compete for a half and then give them some rest in the second. We'll take tomorrow off and shoot a little on Saturday and start our prep work for our (playoff) game on Wednesday. But this is a tough time at McGill right now. This is mid-terms and our kids are staying up late to study and putting in crazy hours. Rest is probably the most important thing right now."

In those final moments, the Citadins pushed hard while McGill relied heavily on the young but steady hands of Al-Uarichachi, Will Ramberg, Zachary Lavoie-Toure, Charles Couture, and JJ Hamel-Carey to shepherd home the team's 12th win in 16 games, three more victories than last season. It was the fourth time in five years that McGill had won at least a dozen contests.
 
"These kids come to practice every single day. They work really hard," continued DeAveiro of McGill's supporting cast who collectively contributed 24 points and 83 minutes towards the win.  "Today was an opportunity to say thank-you in a game which had no effect on where we finished (in league standings) so they deserved it. And they made the most of it. Today was like our red team (starters) versus our white team (subs) in practice. And our white team today came out on top."
 
Mayali, a political science junior and the team's scoring leader with a 17.4 points-per-game average this season, shot 6-for-12 from the floor, 4-for-7 from beyond the arc and sank his only free-throw. He added four rebounds, and two steals.
 
Also reaching double-digits were sophomores Quarry Whyne and JJ Hamel-Carey -- both Montreal-natives -- with 10 points apiece.
 
But it was Ramberg, a freshman from Grand Marais, Minn., who was a particular standout off the bench for DeAveiro. "He has been outstanding the last couple of practices," said the McGill bench of his 6-foot-5 rookie guard who converted a key lay-up to tie the score at 65-65 with 76 seconds remaining to set the table for the winning trey. Ramberg played a season-high 17 minutes of court-time and scored seven points, pulled down four rebounds, collected an assist, had one blocked shot, a steal and a slam dunk, to wow the home crowd.

"What he did today is what he's been doing in practice. I had a gut feeling that if we put him in there, he was going to do some good things and he responded really well. This is a guy who hasn't seen a lot of minutes. In practice he has to face a guy like Jamal Mayali every day which can only make him better. But he has been playing really well in practice and deserved that opportunity."

UQAM's offence was led by Alix Lochard (17) and Jerry Joseph (13).
 
McGill shot 41.9 per cent from the field (26/62), 7-for-27 from downtown and went 11-for-15 from the charity stripe (73.3 per cent). The Citadins shot 34.7 per cent (25/72) and 16.1 (5/31), respectively. They went 10-for-14 from the line.

Typically the last home game of the regular season is a "Senior's Night" dedicated to graduating veterans. However, McGill's core will remain untouched as the entire 17-man roster is expected to return in 2020-21.

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