Jumping out to a 25 point halftime lead primarily bouyed by a 23-7 second quarter run, Queen's Gaels (2-0 overall, 1-0 vs. CIS) trounced visiting Concordia Stingers 73-57 Friday night as the first weekend of CIS pre-season action opened in Kingston. During the key first half run, the Gaels were able to care of the ball (only 6 turnovers), convert in defensive transition and contested Concordia's looks, holding the Stingers to only 14 first-half points - 7 in each quarter on 5-27 shooting including 1-7 3's.
6'6" Mitch Leger led Queen's with 16 points and 10 rebounds but struggled with foul trouble all evening. After picking up his third foul early in the third quarter, Leger had to sit down and the Stingers subsequently turned up the defensive pressure, getting easy scores in transition to bring the game back to 13 by early in the fourth quarter. Despite 20 second-half Gael turnovers, Queen's with Leger back on the floor for much of the fourth quarter were able to win comfortably.
Dan Bannister added 13 points for Queen's while fifth-year wing Ryan Hairsine added 11 points on 3-5 shooting from downtown. Queen's received an encouraging performance from 6'7" 260 lbs. Jordan Kirchberger, who previously played for the football Gaels and took up the slack when Leger was down with fouls. 6'4" second-year wing Kurtis Lawes added 8 points and 8 rebounds for Queen's.
The Stingers, who are finding their way after several years with the talented Buckley brothers leading the way, took some time to get in synch before unleashing their team athletic ability. Concordia was led by slender 6'3" Hamz Rahezamihige, a big guard from Rhawanda who finished with 15 points, going 4 for 10 from downtown in 29 minutes. 6'0" freshman point guard Duane Gero-Carvery from Halifax had 13 points (3-10 3's) in 30 minutes while last season's top rookie 6'4" Evans Laroche logged a team-high 35 minutes and finished with 9 points/9 rebounds.
Concordia meets RMC tomorrow while the Gaels entertain Laval Rouge et Or tomorrow night as the weekend series continue.
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