MONTREAL – Basketball great Kobe Bryant once said: "I'm chasing perfection." And while the late hoops legend may have achieved that, it was certainly overdue for the McGill men's basketball team to find perfection, for the first time in nearly a century.

Jamal Mayali of Toronto scored a game-high 25 points as the No.10 ranked Redbirds clipped Concordia 67-63 to conclude the Quebec university regular season, Saturday, before a sellout of more than 500 at the John Dore Court.

McGill finished with a 12-0 record atop the RSEQ conference, its first perfect season since 1933-34, when the team went 6-0 to win the league's Wilson Cup title. It also marked the first perfect season by any team in the Quebec league since Concordia posted back-to-back 12-0 records in 1992-93 and 1993-94.

"It's a great accomplishment for the institution, our alumni and the guys," said McGill head coach Ryan Thorne. "And a great confidence boost to know that we can go out and beat anybody. But there's still a lot of work to do, so that's what we're more focused on. I stressed to the guys that it's something special to celebrate but it's all for naught if we don't finish the job (by advancing to Nationals)."

The Redbirds will now move into the topsy-turvy world of sudden-death playoffs, where one slip on a banana peel could spoil the fruit of a perfect season. McGill will host fourth-place UQAM on Wednesday (March 23) in an RSEQ semifinal at Love Competition Hall. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. 

The Redbirds won all three meetings this season but came within a basket of losing two of them, an 85-82 overtime thriller and a wild 80-79 affair, both at UQAM.

The Citadins actually finished in a three-way tie with Bishop's and Laval, with each having identical 4-8 records. It took a slide ruler and six tie-breakers to determine that the Gaiters finished third and Laval was ousted from the post season. So the other Quebec semifinal has fourth-place Bishop's at No. 2 seeded Concordia (6-6).

McGill jumped into a quick start, unlike the previous confrontation two days earlier when Concordia took advantage of a sluggish Redbirds start and built up an 18-point lead that they eventually frittered away down the stretch.

McGill led this time around by a 22-10 margin after the opening quarter but the Stingers fought back and Sami Jahan hit a mid-court buzzer-beater at halftime to knot the score at 32-32.

"We had an amazing start, the guys came out focussed," noted Thorne. "One of out pre-game points was about making it so that we take it to them. I'd heard from numerous people that Concordia was going to take it to us, come after us and try to spoil our season, so I wanted the guys to understand that there was no reason we couldn't take it to them and that's what we did to start the game. But we were a little undisciplined in the second quarter, which allowed them back into it and they fought hard."

The third quarter went from bad to worse for the Stingers as it started with a technical foul called against head coach Rastko Popovic, followed moments later by what appeared to be a leg injury suffered by Olivier Simon, the league's second-leading scorer, who had a dozen points in 22 minutes and did not return.

The Redbirds regained control, winning the third period 20-11 but Concordia showed their meddle and took the final quarter 20-15.

Mayali, a 6-foot-1 shooting guard who won the league scoring title,  was a one-man wrecking crew after being held to just three points in the previous rendezvous. The fifth-year political science senior, shot 8-for-15 from the field, including a sizzling 5-for-10 performance from three-point range. He was 4-for-6 from the free-throw line and contributed three rebounds with three assists.

His supporting cast featured Quarry Whyne, the"Ice Man", who nailed a pair of freebies to win the last meeting and was perfect in six trips to the free-throw line. Whyne finished with 11 points, a game-high eight rebounds, three steals and a pair of assists.

Sam Jenkins also reached double digits. He tallied 10 points with four assists, three steals and three rebounds.

Haris Elezovic, the 6-foot-8 freshman who starts at centre, was limited to just six points and half a dozen boards before fouling out.

For Concordia, joining the injured Simon in double digits was Nathanael Boisvert, who scored a dozen points off the bench.

Once again, McGill was mint from the charity stripe, draining 19 of 22 freebies, compared to Concordia's tepid 5-for-10 effort. It marked the fifth time in 12 league games that the Redbirds had made more foul shots than their opponent made trips to the line. That made a world of difference in a contest that was decided by four points.

McGill connected on 41 per cent of their field goals (20/49) and went 8-for-22 from the arc. Concordia countered with 21-for-61  and 10-for-29, respectively.

The Redbirds will now enter post-season play riding a 12-game win streak, which ties the school record for most consecutive victories. That mark standard was set in 1976-77 when McGill won its first dozen games en route to a 14-1 league record, a 28-5 overall mark, a Quebec league championship win over Concordia and a berth at the Nationals in Halifax, which ended with a fourth-place finish at the Final Eight tourney.

BOXSCORE

RSEQ STATS & STANDINGS

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