McGill women clinch Quebec hoops crown for first time since 1996
Anneth Him-Lazarenko of Panama City racked up a "double-double" with 17 points and a game-high dozen rebounds as McGill defeated Concordia 56-49 at Love Competition Hall, Friday.
It was kind of like winning the lottery, in more ways than one.
McGill did come away with the big prize, capturing their first league title in 16 years, to advance to the CIS championship in Calgary, March 17-19. They also won financially as they will save a good chunk of money by not having to fly to Saskatoon for a two-game CIS regional tourney, which will produce a wild-card spot at the Nationals.
Kaylah Barrett, a sophomore guard from Brampton, Ont., scored a game-high 23 points in a losing cause for Concordia, which gets the consolation prize and will now have to spend about $20,000 for that trip to the Midwest. Teammate Natasha Raposo, a freshman from Montreal, added 13 points in just 17 minutes of playing time.
"It was a great accomplishment for this team to (finally) win the conference title, said conference coach of the year Ryan Thorne, in his ninth season as bench boss at McGill. "This is a team that took a while to build and it also took some time to get them to believe that we could have excellence in athletics as well as in academics."
Concordia scored the opening basket but never led again after that. The Martlets jumped into a very comfortable 16-6 lead after the opening quarter, extending that to 30-16 at the half and 48-29 after three quarters. But the wheels almost fell off in the final stanza, as the Stingers mounted a furious comeback, which fell seven points short, outscoring McGill 20-8.
"We started out well and had a real good three quarters but we got a little tight in the fourth quarter and let the lead slip a bit," noted Thorne. "But the girls were tough, resilient and kept working hard. The lead that we built was just so hard for Concordia to overcome but they were a tough competitor."
McGill had a season-high 63 rebounds, compared to only 36 by Concordia but the Stingers crawled back in the game as a result of a 20-9 advantage in turnovers.
Only six Martlets made the scoresheet. Lazarenko shot 7-for-17 from the floor and made only three of nine attempts from the charity stripe in 30 minutes of court-time.
"We were really ready with our game plan at the start, which was to box (them) out, push the ball (up court) and don't give the ball away, which we did a little bit," confessed Lazarenko, a 5-foot-10 centre who earned all-conference honours for the third time in four years. "But we did an amazing job boxing-out and I think that's what gave us a lot of transition buckets and a big lead. I didn't have my best season offensively but it was important to step up when we had a big game and I think I was able to do that today."
Teammate Francoise Charest, a third-year point-guard from Quebec City, added 14 points and eight rebounds in 37 minutes of court-time.
"Everyone played a solid game but Frankie (Francoise) was our leader out there, especially early on,' said Thorne of Charest, who connected for a pair of treys and went 4-for-4 from the line. "She knocked down shots and got to the basket."
Rounding out the scoring for McGill was Natalie Larocque (9 pts, 8 rbs) of Quebec City, Marie-Eve Martin (6) of Granby, Que., Valerie L'Ecuyer (6) of Mirabel, Que., and Tiye Traore (4), a rookie from Sudbury, Ont.
McGill shot 39.4 per cent from the field and made just four of 22 attempts from three-point range. They sunk 57.1 per cent of the free-throws (12 of 21). The Stingers did not fare much better, connecting on 26.2, 18.2 and 61.9, respectively.
The Martlets have more than a week to recover and prepare before heading out to Nationals around March 13.