MONTREAL – Lily Rose Chatila scored 19 points and Seyna Diggs added 15 as McGill cruised past the UQAM Citadins 78-49 in women's university basketball at the Centre Sportif, Thursday.
 
The Martlets, who now own a 56-35 lifetime record against UQAM, improved to 5-2 on the season and moved into a first-place tie with Laval (5-1) in the RSEQ conference standings. The winless Citadins dropped to 0-7 after posting a 9-7 third-place finish last season.
 
McGill, jumped into a 26-10 lead after the opening quarter and never looked back. They led 44-21 at the half and 67-33 after three quarters before making liberal substitutions in the final stanza. The 78 points scored was McGill's second-highest total of the season, behind the record-breaking 102 registered against UQAM on Nov. 23.
 
"We got off to a good start," said McGill head coach Rikki Bowles, whose troops won the turnover battle 22-13. "We were able to turn them over by putting on a bit of a press and we scored well. It was a good team effort. We had 26 assists on 29 field-goals, so we did a good job of sharing the ball, finding people and everyone got to play. It was a really good win in somebody else's gym, which is never easy to do."
 
The Martlets had a 55-39 advantage in rebounding, their highest total since Dec. 1, 2018, when they pulled down 55 off the glass at Bishop's. Ten of the 12 players dressed by McGill got on the scoreboard.
 
Chatila, a 5-foot-7 guard from Quebec City, shot 7-for-11 from the floor, including a 2-for-4 effort from three-point range, and was a perfect 3-for-3 from the free-throw line. The 21-year-old anatomy sophomore added seven assists, four rebounds and a pair of steals.
 
"Lily led the way for us and had 15 points at halftime," noted Bowles. "We kind of shut her down in the fourth quarter to get everybody some playing time."
 
Diggs, who scored her 15 points amd six rebounds in just 16 minutes of court time, went 7-for-10 from the field, to post her highest single-game tally since Nov. 21 when she had 16 at Bishop's. The sophomore forward from Montreal added a half-dozen rebounds with two steals.
 
"Seyna put in a lot of work over the December break, shooting and running in the gym," Bowles offered. "I was happy to see that pay off for her in this first league game back after the break."
 
Marie Bethel led the Citadins with a game-high 23 points in a losing cause.
 
The Martlets shot 35.8 per cent from the field (29/81), 24.2 from the arc (8/33) and 66.7 from the line (12/18). UQAM made only 28.6 per cent of their shots (16/56). They went 2-for-18 from distance and 15-for-21 at the line.
 
The cross-town rivals will meet again on Saturday, switching venues to Love Competition Hall in a 4 p.m. tipoff at the Currie Gym.

BOXSCORE

RSEQ STATS & STANDINGS

SOURCE
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
CELL: 514-983-7012
E-MAIL:earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca