Basketball Kings defeat Lightning 94-76

Last week the Red Deer College Kings Basketball team defeated the St. Mary's University Lightning 118-87 but weren't completely satisfied. Moving forward, one goal was to reduce the number of points allowed and Saturday the Kings reduced the number of points against by 11. The RDC Kings started strongly and defeated the Lightning 94-76. 

The Kings came out fast and pushed out to a 25-10 lead. As the first quarter wrapped up the RDC Kings were up 29-16. 

It was a back and forth second quarter and at the half the RDC Kings led 52-41.

The Lightning attempted to narrow the gap but after three quarters of play the Kings led 68-59.

St. Mary's narrowed the lead to 4 points but the Kings made some solid defensive plays to hold them off. The game ended 94-76 in favour of the RDC Kings.

Ian Tevis was named the Kings player-of-the-game. The Kinesiology and Sport Studies student finished with 20 points, 2 blocks, 10 steals, 9 assists and 2 rebounds. As a team the RDC Kings totalled 3 blocks, 22 steals, 18 assists, 31 rebounds and scored 31 points off of Lightning turnovers. The Kings capitalized on a few slam dunk opportunities throughout the game, which energized the team and the crowd. Several fans jumped out of their seats to applaud the plays.

The Kings Head Coach Clayton Pottinger saw signs of tighter defensive play.

"In spurts we played good defence tonight and down the stretch when they closed it to four points our defence saved us," said Pottinger. "We are showing signs of what we want to do on a consistent basis. This is the least number of points that we've given up all year long. When they were within four points we turned them over three times with solid defence and that gave us some transition opportunities to score relatively quickly. I was proud of how we finished the game out."

The size for the Kings helped at both ends of the court. 

"Matt Matear led the division in rebounds last season and you can see why," said Pottinger. "Last night he had 18 rebounds. Tonight he was almost into double digits and it definitely helped us."

The RDC Kings sit in first place in the ACAC Men's Basketball South Division with a perfect 3-0 record. Friday, Nov. 11 the RDC Kings face the SAIT Trojans in Calgary at 8:00 p.m.