MONTREAL –
Cameron Elliot of Ottawa, scored a season-high 20 points but it was in vain as the McGill Redbirds fell 79-62 to Concordia in men's university basketball before a sold-out crowd at the John Dore Court, Saturday.
It was the first of four scheduled confrontations between the cross-town rivals and the second straight win for the Stingers, who have dropped seven of their last 10 meetings with McGill. The teams will not cross paths again until a home-and-home-series, Jan. 11 and 13.
The Redbirds won the first and third quarters but lost the other two. They led 17-16 after the opening stanza but Concordia roared back to take a commanding 43-28 halftime lead. After the break, McGill came out firing on all cylinders, winning the quarter 22-15 and narrowing the gap to 58-50. But the Stingers regained their composure to win the final quarter 21-13.
Elliot, a 6-foot-3, 235-pound guard, last reached the 20-point plateau 31 games ago, on Oct. 29, 2002 against Carleton. The 22-year-old accounting senior was 6-for-12 from the floor, draining five treys on 10 attempts from downtown. He went 3-for-3 from the free-throw line and added four rebounds with a steal and a pair of assists.
Montrealer
Sean Herscovitch was the only other McGillian to reach double figures in scoring with 19 points. After three contest, he is currently the team's second-leading scorer, averaging 14.3 points per game.
Joshua Soifer, a first-year transfer from Oxford University who leads the Redbirds in scoring with an 18.0 average, was limited to five points, five rebounds and four steals.
Jaheem Joseph paced Concordia with a double-double, posting 26 points and 15 rebounds. He was called for a technical foul with his troops ahead by 12 in the fourth quarter.
Other high scorers in a spread out Stingers offence were
Sami Jahan (17),
Bradley Louidon (13) and
Karam Sahly (10).
Concordia, which held a significant 44-23 advantage in rebounding, shot 48.5 per cent from the field (33/68), drained only two of 20 from the arc and went 11-for-15 from the line. McGill shot 41.1 per cent (23/56), made seven of 18 from distance and made nine of 13 freebies.
The Stingers (2-1) return to action on Nov. 16 when they play host to UQAM (2-0).
McGill (0-3) has two more road games on the immediate horizon, against winless Laval (0-2) on Nov. 18 and at Bishop's (2-0) on Nov. 23 before returning home to confront UQAM on Nov. 25 in a 4 p.m. matinee at Love Competition Hall.
REDBIRDS RAP: The McGill roster features a dozen new players, to go along with a pair of sophomores and five seniors… The breakdown by place of birth includes nine form Quebec, four apiece from Ontario, and British Columbia, one from Saskatchewan and one from Haiti.
BOXSCORE
RSEQ STATS & STANDINGS
SOURCE
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
