MONTREAL – Five players reached double-digits in scoring as Laval rallied from a 14-point deficit to defeat McGill 81-70 in men's basketball at Love Competition Hall, Thursday.
 
The Redbirds led 14-6 after the first quarter and appeared to be in cruise control when they sprinted into a 31-17 lead with 3:21 remaining before halftime. But the visitors narrowed the gap to 35-23 at the intermission, then won the third stanza by a lopsided 30-13 margin to take a 53-48 advantage into the final period. Laval then captured the fourth quarter 28-22.

It marked the third time in as many games that McGill had conceded a large lead in the second half. After nine league contests, the Redbirds have outscored opponents by a 337-293 margin in the first half but have been outscored 371-307 in the second half.
 
The officials called 29 personal fouls against McGill, compared to just 10 for the Rouge et Or. That translated into Laval draining 21 of a season-high 29 attempts from the free-throw line. In comparison, the Redbirds went to the line a season-low five times and came away with four points.  It was McGill's lowest number of attempts from the line in league play since going 1-for-1 four years ago, in a 66-53 win over Laval on Jan. 31, 2019.
 
Saydou Sall paced the Rouge et Or with 18 points, aided by 15 apiece from Sidney Tremblay-Lacombe, Loic Savard and Ismael Diouf. Adding 10 off the bench was Brandon Massimo Maniani-Wembe.
 
Leading the way for the Redbirds was Samuel Chaput of Longueuil, Que., with 16 points, on 7-for-14 shooting. He added five rebounds, five assists and a steal.
 
Forward Haris Elezovic tallied 13 points and pulled down a game-high nine rebounds. The 6-foot-8 management junior from Sherbrooke has taken over the team's scoring lead with 15.4 points per game, which ranks fifth among league leaders. He is also ranked second among the conference's rebounding leaders with an average of 9.7 per game.

Sam Jenkins had 11 points, with seven rebounds, six assists and three steals. Kevin Li contributed nine points off the bench, while Cameron Elliot and Ibrahim Gosselin-Diawara had seven points apiece.
 
Laval connected on 45.5 per cent of their field-goal attempts (25/55), compared to McGill, which shot 41.8 per cent from the floor (28/67). Both sides made 10 treys but Laval was more efficient with 23 attempts, compared to 35 by the home team.
 
The Redbirds held a 35-30 advantage in rebounds but Laval had the edge in turnovers (19-17), steals (8-6) and blocks (1-0).
 
Laval, which has won four consecutive outings, improved to 6-4 and moved into a tie with UQAM (6-2) atop the RSEQ conference, although the Citadins hold two games in hand.
 
It was an especially costly loss for McGill, which has now dropped three in a row. Bishop's (3-5) upset Concordia (5-4) by a 98-94 score in triple overtime on Thursday, and have moved into the fourth playoff berth, two points ahead of the Redbirds, who have played one more game. With six contests remaining, McGill will have a key return match at Laval on Saturday (Feb. 21), before a home-and home series with Bishop's and three straight meetings versus Concordia.
 
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SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca