MONTREAL – Haris Elezovic collected another double-double and Sam Jenkins tallied 18 points as McGill defeated Concordia 78-68 in a must-win affair to capture the fourth annual George Lengvari Cup men's basketball game, Saturday.
 
It was McGill's second win over the Stingers in three days – and the seventh in the past eight meetings – after losing the season's first rendezvous 58-57 on Nov. 12. So with two games remaining on the schedule, the Redbirds are now tied with Concordia for the fourth and final playoff berth in the RSEQ conference. Both teams are 5-9 and will meet each other for a third consecutive outing, on Feb. 18 in a 4 p.m. tip-off at Love Competition Hall.

"We were competitive, we worked, we fought," said Redbirds bench boss Ryan Thorne, who quietly collected his 300th coaching victory at McGill, including 277 with the women's program. "Concordia's resilient, they battle and started attacking us one-on-one (in the fourth quarter) and we maintained (control), so I was really happy with the effort from our guys... We were sharing the ball and... we made sure that everyone was involved, got opportunities and just recognized where the advantages were."

The much-anticipated game was sold out a day in advance, with an announced crowd of 350 at the John Dore Court, which has a slightly larger capacity but is under size restrictions due to the waning pandemic.

Elezovic, the 6-foot-8 management junior from Sherbrooke, Que., tallied 19 points and 11 boards, just two days after scoring 21 and grabbing 22. He now has 10 double-doubles in 24 games overall, including six in regular season play. Elezovic, who was also credited with a pair of assists, shot 8-for-12 from the floor and went 3-for-4 from the line. He is ranked second among league leaders in both offensive and defensive rebounds per game, averaging 3.4 and 4.6, respectively.

"I think that he is one of the best 'bigs' in the conference and when he plays within himself, he's tough to deal with because (the scoring) will either come through him or he'll find his teammates," said Thorne. "And that's what we need from him. It doesn't have to be an outstanding game that he's doing too much and that's what we've talked about. So just staying within himself and scoring. And his teammates were looking for him as well. But more than that, what he does is gets us rebounds. He's a beast on the boards, so we're definitely happy with that."

Jenkins, a fifth-year senior from hamilton, Ont., scored his second highest points total of the season, on the strength of 6-for-12 shooting.

"It was huge, honestly. We know what's at stake at this point to qualify for playoffs and have really come together in the last two weeks to push for that. We all want it really badly," said Jenkins, who was a deadly 4-for-8 from downtown and took over the league lead with 37 treys made. "The key was staying locked in and knowing what we had to do. We knew our recent history of giving away leads in the third quarter and were keenly aware of what needed to be done."

Four McGill starters reached double-digits in scoring, including Samuel Chaput (15) and Ibrahim Gosselin-Diawara (11), both natives of of Longueuil, Que.  Chaput is second among RSEQ conference scoring leaders, averaging 18.4 points per outing.

Concordia's Steve Mbida-Abomo also merited a double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds.

The contest featured only two lead changes. McGill was ahead 21-18 after the opening quarter, then grabbed a stunning 41-26 advantage into halftime and stretched that to 60-43 after three. The Stingers took the last frame 25-18. The Redbirds shot a sizzling 52 per cent success rate from the field, making 26 of 50 attempts, compared to Concordia, which connected on 31.4 per cent (22/70).

McGill was 7-for-21 from three-point territory and 19-for-26 from the free-throw line,  compared to Concordia, which went 5-for-25 and 19-for-24, respectively. The Redbirds had a 36-33 edge in rebounding but Concordia had a 14-8 advantage in turnovers.

Looking at the playoff picture, the Redbirds have outscored Concordia by a 212-192 margin this season and would clinch a spot in the post-season if they win the next meeting. Should McGill lose to Concordia, it would have to be by less than 20 points and then the only way for McGill to qualify for the playoffs would be to win their final game at UQAM (9-5), while hoping that the Stingers lose theirs against visiting Laval (9-5).

Both McGill and Concordia could still catch third-place Bishop's (7-7) but either would have to sweep their last two games, while hoping the Gaiters lose both of theirs. McGill split their four games with BU but outscored them 298-296. Concordia also split with Bishop's but outscored the Gaiters 320-319. Bishop's will close out their campaign at Laval and at home to UQAM.

THE LENGVARI CUP: McGill is now 3-1 against Concordia in Lengvari Cup play... Three of the four games have been won by the visiting team, with the Stingers taking the first one 86-69 at Love Competition Hall (Jan. 21/19) and McGill rebounding on the road for a 58-54 decision (Feb. 15/20). Last year, McGill won 58-57 on home territory (Mar. 17/22)... The event is named in honour of long-time benefactor George Lengvari, Jr., a native Montrealer and chairman of Lengvari Capital, Ltd., who presented the trophy in a post-game ceremony. Lengvari earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Loyola College (BA '63) – one of Concordia's two founding institutions – and a law degree from McGill (BCL '66). During his varsity career, he was a forward and MVP of the Loyola Warriors team that won the Ottawa-St. Lawrence league title in 1962-63 and qualified for the first Canadian Final Four national championship. He went on to play three seasons at McGill, where he served as team captain of the men's basketball squad. In May, 2021, he was a recipient of the U SPORTS Mitchell Family Alumni of the Year Award, which recognizes philanthropy... In Dec. 2021, he announced a million dollar gift to the basketball program at each of his two alma maters... In  Oct. 2022, he was inducted in the builder category to the McGill Sports Hall of Fame.

BOXSCORE

STANDINGS & STATS

NATIONAL STATS LEADERS


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