LENNOXVILLE, QUE – Charles Robert of Vaudreuil, Que., registered a double-double and scored the winning basket to pace Bishop's in a 73-71 come-from-behind thriller over McGill to open the RSEQ men's basketball regular season at Mitchell Gym, Thursday.

It marked McGill's 121st official campaign opener and was the team's first regular season loss in 22 months, snapping a 16-game win streak, dating back to an 89-83 overtime setback against visiting Concordia on Jan. 25, 2020. The result was also the first league win for new Gaiters head coach Matt McLean.

McGill led 22-19 after the opening quarter, 38-24 at halftime and appeared to be in full control with a comfortable 11-point lead in the final minute of the third but the Gaiters reduced the deficit to 56-46 after three, then rallied to win the final stanza 27-15.

The Redbirds had a chance to win it on the final shot when Sean Herscovitch in-bounded to Cameron Elliot with 23  seconds left but some tough BU defence forced McGill into six passes before Elliot finally shot and missed a trey from long-distance with five seconds remaining.

Roberts collected a game-high 22 points, to go along 10 rebounds for the Gaiters. Teammate Hisham Saleh came off the bench to contribute 15 points, while Etienne Gagnon added a dozen.

Sam Jenkins led McGill with a game-high 20 points on 7-for-18 shooting. He added four rebounds, five assists, a pair of steals and one blocked shot. Teammate Haris Elezovic added 11 points and nine rebounds, while Cam Elliot contributed nine points, seven rebounds and a game-high eight assists.

McGill had a 21-12 advantage in turnovers while the Gaiters held a 42-39 edge in rebounding. The Redbirds drained 12 of 18 attempts from the charity stripe, while BU was 5-for-10.

In the end, the host squad shot a stellar 49.2 per cent from the field (29/59), including a 10-for-23 effort from downtown. The visitors shot 35.6 from the floor (26/73) and 7-for-28 from the arc.

McGill (0-1) has a day to recover before heading to Quebec City to face Laval (0-0) on Saturday (Nov. 5).  Bishop's (1-0) returns to action on Nov. 10 with a road game at Concordia (0-1).

BOXSCORE

RSEQ STANDINGS & STATS


SOURCE:
 
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
@EarlZukerman (twitter)