Men’s basketball season stellar
Although things didn’t end with the national championship it had sought, the Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team had an outstanding 2006-07 season, racking up a slew of team and individual honours.
Concordia won its second Quebec championship in three years, topped the end-of-year national rankings and lost only two games all season against Canadian university opponents. Unfortunately for the Stingers, one of those losses came in the first round of the Final-8 tournament last weekend in Halifax, where they dropped a heart-breaker 63-62 to St. Mary’s.
But Concordia then rebounded to win two games in consolation play to finish in fifth place. “It was important for us to finish on a high-note, maybe prove that we deserved better than fifth place,” said Ben Sormonte, a graduating guard from Aix-en-Provence, France. “It’s especially nice for Pat (Perrotte) and myself since we’re the only two guys wearing the Stingers colours for the last time.”
Perrotte was named a first-team All-Canadian earlier in the week on the heels of being named Quebec conference MVP. From day one of the season, these Stingers were on a mission to accomplish something special, motivated in part by the looming departure of their two heart-and-soul players, Perrotte and Sormonte.
Concordia steamrolled over their Quebec opponents en route to a 15-1 regular season record and then displayed their superiority once again in two dominating playoff wins over the Université du Québec à Montréal and Université Laval.
The highlight of the year was the Quebec championship win on March 9 at home. The seniors were intent on enjoying every moment of their final game at Concordia Gym, as Sormonte made an astounding 7-of-8 three-point shots as part of his 25 total points and Perrotte scored 23 in the 84-57 rout of Laval. A wild celebration ensued afterwards, including the requisite team photo with the championship banner, the cutting down of the mesh on the basket and a Gatorade shower for head coach John Dore.
“I think we have a quality program—one of the best in the country,” said a damp coach Dore as “We are the Champions” blared in the background. “We have real good guys in the program—character guys—and it shows because they’re very supportive of one another. Ben Sormonte and Pat Perrotte—you can’t say enough about them.”
Dore was named the Quebec conference coach of the year for the third season in a row. Also garnering individual honours were Quebec second-team all-star Sormonte and the outstanding brother tandem of Damian and Dwayne Buckley, who were both first-team all-stars. Dwayne Buckley also won the award for Quebec defensive player of the year.