MONTREAL -- Darin Green Jr., led all scorers with 25 points as visiting Florida State University defeated McGill 90-74 before close to 500 fans at Love Competition Hall to open the 121st season of men's basketball on the campus, Wednesday.

In what was the first-ever confrontation between the two schools, FSU jumped into an early 7-0 lead but McGill roared back to take a 9-7 lead. By the end of the opening quarter, Florida State led 30-21, then improved that to 49-34 at halftime and 69-46 after three. The Seminoles only won the second half by a 41-40 margin.

"It was reminiscent of our performance at the national championships last year," said Ryan Thorne, now in his third year and second season as head coach of the McGill men's team after 17 years with the women's program.

"We played well in spurts and that's what I talked to the guys about (after the game) but we let down in certain opportunities.That was a great team we faced out there and we had an opportunity to just fight and battle. But at times we were sloppy and... (we've) got to be deliberate. We went out there and made too many lazy (intercepted) passes and that was disappointing, but there were some good things that happened."

Senior Kevin Li from Vancouver, B.C., tallied a career-high 23 points for the host Redbirds, on  9-for-20 shooting, including an impressive 5-for-11 effort from downtown.  The 6-foot-8, 237-pound forward only managed three rebounds, however. Originally from Beijing, he played high school hoops at West Vancouver Secondary School. Li, who was red-shirted with injuries for two seasons, easily surpassed his previous career best output in a McGill uniform, a 15-point effort in a 76-62 win at Laval on Nov. 26, 2021.

Teammate Haris Elezovic, a sophomore from Sherbrooke, Que., posted a double-double with 17 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Both Li and Elezovic saw a team-high 31 minutes of court duty, along with senior Cameron Elliot of Ottawa.

Elliot collected nine points, a game-high six assists, four steals and one rebound.

Teammate Sedami-Habib Djossou, a sophomore from Quebec City, came off the bench to score nine points as well, adding four rebounds in just 16 minutes.

Jaylan Gainey also registered a double-double for FSU, with 12 points and 10 rebounds as the Seminoles, an NCAA Div. 1 team from Tallahassee, Fla., completed their preseason Canadian tour with a perfect 3-0 record. They opened with an 86-66 victory over Ottawa in the nation's capital on Aug. 6 and added a lopsided 98-64 decision over Carleton (Aug. 10), the perennial Canadian champions.

FSU led the rebounding battle 38-26 with a huge height advantage. They had five players surpassing McGill's tallest (6-foot-8), including 7-foot-4, 255-pound Naheem McLeod, a sophomore from Philadelphia, who was shaken up early in the opening stanza and only saw 15 minutes of court time.

"The thing you do against a height advantage is you battle early, you don't let them get early position," noted Thorne. "You box out. You've got to want to battle to keep those big guys off the glass."

Florida State shot 53.8 per cent from the field (35/65), 38.1 from three-point range (8/21) and drained 12 of 17 from the free-throw line. The Redbirds countered with a 45.2 per cent success rate from the floor (28/62) and 41.4 from beyond the arc (12/29) but sank only six of 14 attempts from the line.

McGill only has two days off to prepare for the visiting University of Vermont Catamounts, who play here on Saturday (Aug. 13) at 2 p.m. in Love Competition Hall. The game will not be streamed and tickets are $15 and only available online.

"I was very happy with the fan support, we had a decent crowd for our first time out," Thorne said. "These are opportunities to showcase our players against a great NCAA team and we have to take advantage of that on a more regular basis."

FSU will play next on Nov. 7, when they host Stetson University.

REDBIRDS RAP: The Redbirds, who opened training camp on Aug. 2, their earliest ever, were sporting a nifty new set of Adidas uniforms for the game. The home white set featured a red-lettered "McGill" across the chest with red numbers and a thin black trim outline. The sides featured thicker red and black stripes, all the way from the underarm down to the bottom of the white-based shorts. There was also some black trim around the neck.

BOXSCORE


SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
m.athletics.mcgill.ca (mobile website)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca