In the Q: Basketball playoffs set to begin

Tomorrow night in Quebec City, the Concordia Stingers (5-11, #28 RPI) will take on the Quebec regular season champion Laval Rouge et Or (11-5, #12 RPI).

On the surface, it looks like a mismatch and people will already be penciling Laval in for a conference final date against the winner of Bishop's (10-6, #15 RPI) and UQAM (9-7, #5 RPI). However, a closer look shows that Laval is struggling. The Rouge et Or are 3-3 in their last six games after an 8-2 start. They lost both games against UQAM this past weekend, swept two games against McGill and split two games against Concordia.

The Stingers went into Quebec City and rallied from a 15 point deficit to beat Laval 76-70 in overtime on Feb. 7. On the next afternoon, Concordia rallied from 13 points down in the fourth quarter to tie the game before a questionable blocking foul with five seconds left allowed two free throws for Laval, who won the game by one. Laval won the previous two meetings by scores of 76-54 and 66-59.

The other semi-final is an interesting matchup between Bishop's and UQAM. Despite being in the RPI's top-10 for the last few weeks, UQAM is the visiting team, finishing a game behind the Gaiters.

The season series between the two teams is tied at 2 a piece with the home team winning each game. Bishop's won by scores of 55-36 and 57-50. UQAM won by scores of 82-67 and 57-50.

Bishop's was 4-0 vs Concordia, 2-2 vs UQAM, 2-2 vs Laval and 2-2 vs McGill
UQAM was 3-1 vs Concordia, 2-2 vs Bishop's, 2-2 vs Laval and 2-2 vs McGill

The women's all-star teams and award winners were announced as well. McGill had two major award winners despite not making the playoffs - you have to think the results would have been different had super rookie Anneth Him-Lazarenko been healthy for the final four games against Laval and Concordia. Him-Lazarenko was not only named conference rookie of the year, but was named to the 1st all star team.

Men's basketball
The men's matchups are the exact same as the four games in the Quebec conference last week.

McGill (5-11, #19 RPI) will meet Concordia (12-4, #5 RPI) while Laval (10-6, #27 RPI) will host UQAM (8-8, #24 RPI).

Except for Concordia, the Quebec conference is flipped when you compare RPI to conference standings. It should make for some interesting matchups.

McGill has played two very tough games at the Concordia Gym. They shocked the Stingers 93-82 at Concordia in a game that wasn't as close as the score indicated and last week lost 83-73 one day after taking the Stingers to overtime at McGill. The Stingers won the other game between the two teams 82-69 to take the season series 3-1. McGill, actually had more players named to the QSSF All-Star teams (3- Sean Anthony, 1st team; Michael White and Moustafa El Zanaty, 2nd team) than Concordia (2- Damian Buckley, 1st team; Jamal Gallier, 2nd team). Buckley was the unanimous choice for MVP, Gallier won defensive player of the year.

As for Laval and UQAM, the season series was tied two a piece. Laval won both games this past weekend, however, 81-77 and 80-76. It will be interesting to see which team comes out on top. UQAM has beat Laval in Quebec City - 83-81 back on December 5.

Related: QSSF women's basketball awards
QSSF men's basketball awards
Next PostNewer Post Previous PostOlder Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment