White hot as McGill shakes and bakes Stingers
By Earl Zukerman
MONTREAL – Michael White, a junior from Montreal, tallied game
highs of 22 points and 15 rebounds – both career highs – as McGill
stunned the No.6-ranked Concordia Stingers 93-82 in men’s
university basketball at the Loyola campus gymnasium, Friday.
The result snapped a five-game losing skid for the Redmen (2-5) and
was only McGill’s second victory in the last 25 meetings against
their cross-town rivals, dating back to 2002.
In women's play, Concordia defeated the Martlets 74-53.
White, a 6-foot-4, 204-pound forward, made eight of 16 attempts
from the field and went 5-for-7 from the charity stripe. He was
assigned the unenviable task of neutralizing Concordia’s Jamal
Gallier, a 6-foot-7, 270-pound centre who ended up with 10 points
and seven rebounds but was relatively ineffective against White and
eventually benched. White ended up with 35 minutes of court time
compared to Gallier, who played just 21 minutes.
“It was a must-win and a character win,” said an emotional McGill
head coach Craig Norman, who played for the Stingers from 1982 to
1987 and knows better than anyone else how the Stingers have owned
the Redmen, especially at the Concordia gym. “It was our best
overall effort over 40 minutes this year. We out-rebounded them in
their own gym and that is very rare for any visiting team to do
here. We had solid performances from everyone, especially off the
bench but White led the way. He missed his first three baskets but
turned it up a notch and came up with a career game.”
McGill, which managed a season-high 20 points from the bench,
registered a 41-33 edge in rebounding and a 4-2 margin in blocked
shots against a much-taller Concordia lineup.
The Redmen trailed 8-5 early but rallied quickly to take a 9-8 lead
at 6:34 in the opening stanza and never trailed after that, leading
32-21 after one quarter, 54-36 at the half, and 72-52 after three
quarters.
Junior Matt Thornhill of Ile-Bizard, Que., contributed 21 points on
8-for-14 shooting. The 6-foot-4 forward made three of six attempted
treys and went 2-for-2 from the line.
Seniors Moustafa El Zanaty of Montreal and Sean Anthony, from
Vancouver, B.C., added 13 and 11, respectively.
“I was pleased with our execution, especially after two tough
losses to UQAM last week, where we committed way too many
turnovers,” said Norman. “We practiced at 6:30 am on Monday and
turned the page on last week. We had a good week of practice and I
think we surprised Concordia with a 1-3-1 alignment tonight. Our
game-plan was to contain the Buckley brothers from doing too much
damage.”
Montreal native Damian Buckley had 18 points and his younger
sibling Dwayne was held to just nine.
The Redmen shot a stellar 50.7 per cent from the floor (36/71),
34.8 from three-point range (8/23) and 59.1 from the free-throw
line (13/22), compared to Concordia, which shot 40.0 (30/75), 31.4
(11/35) and 61.1 (11/18), respectively.
“We’ve proven that we can win against good teams this year,” said
Norman. “We beat Virginia in the preseason, then knocked off Ottawa
(ranked as high as No.2), No.7-Western and No.6-Concordia. Now
we’ve got to learn to take care of business against the other
teams.”
The five-team Quebec conference is looking more and more like it’s
anyone’s race to win. UQAM now sits atop the standings with a 5-3
record, followed by Laval (4-3) and Concordia (4-3), Bishop’s (3-4)
and McGill (2-5). The Redmen will host the Stingers in a rematch at
the Currie gym on Saturday at 8 p.m.
“We have to come back and play an even better game against the
Stingers on our home court,” said Norman. “You can be sure that
they will adjust and be ready for us. This will be a good test to
see how we respond.”
REDMEN RAP: Sebastien Gatti and Jesse Woods led McGill off the
bench with nine and eight points, respectively. Gatti was 4-for-4
from the field, including a three-pointer and Woods had four tips
at the rim, shooting 4-for-5 to go along with eight rebounds and a
block… Starting guard Pawel Herra contributed six points and senior
Erik Galas, who joined the squad this semester after a stellar
season with the football Redmen, had three points and a rebound in
his one brief shift… McGill hasn’t beaten Concordia more than once
in a season since the 2001-02 campaign, when they posted their only
undefeated season against their bitter rivals, sweeping all five
confrontations.
Newspaper Box Score
McGill Redmen vs Concordia University
16/09/09 1800 at concordia gym
At concordia gym
MCGILL REDMEN 93, CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY 82
MCGILL REDMEN
Michael White 8-16 5-7 22; Matthew Thornhill 8-14 2-2 21; Moustafa
El Zanaty
5-10 2-2 13; Sean Anthony 4-14 3-6 11; Sebastien Gatti 4-4 0-0 9;
Jesse
Woods 4-5 0-2 8; Pawel Herra 2-6 0-0 6; Erika Galas 1-1 1-3 3; Jeff
Cumming
0-1 0-0 0. Totals 36-71 13-22 93.
CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY
Damian Buckley 6-12 3-5 18; Pierre Thompson 3-8 3-6 12; Hamza
Ruhezamihigo
4-12 0-0 11; Jamal Gallier 5-8 0-0 10; Dwayne Buckley 3-13 2-2 9;
James
Clark 4-6 0-0 8; Decee Krah 1-5 3-4 6; Evens Laroche 2-2 0-0 4;
Sebastian
Martin 2-4 0-1 4; Kafil Eyitayo 0-2 0-0 0; Levi Vann 0-3 0-0 0.
Totals 30-75
11-18 82.
McGill Redmen................. 32 22 18 21 - 93
Concordia University.......... 21 19 16 26 - 82
3-point goals-McGill Redmen 8-23 (Matthew Thornhill 3-6; Pawel
Herra 2-5;
Michael White 1-4; Moustafa El Zanaty 1-4; Sebastien Gatti 1-1;
Sean Anthony
0-3), Concordia University 11-35 (Pierre Thompson 3-6; Hamza
Ruhezamihigo
3-10; Damian Buckley 3-5; Dwayne Buckley 1-6; Decee Krah 1-4; Kafil
Eyitayo
0-1; Levi Vann 0-3). Fouled out--McGill Redmen-Michael White,
Concordia
University-Evens Laroche. Rebounds-McGill Redmen 41 (Michael White
15),
Concordia University 33 (Jamal Gallier 7; Evens Laroche 7; Dwayne
Buckley
7). Assists-McGill Redmen 16 (Moustafa El Zanaty 6), Concordia
University 14
(Damian Buckley 9). Total fouls-McGill Redmen 18, Concordia
University 19.
SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
Dept. of Athletics & Recreation, Room 225 B
McGill University
475 Pine Avenue W.,
Montreal, QC H2W 1S4
CANADA
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
514-398-1956 (Fax)
www.athletics.mcgill.ca