Basketball Kings win at home 89-71 over Briercrest

The Red Deer College Kings Basketball team came into tonight's game against the Briercrest College Clippers with an unbeaten 5-0 record. Once the Kings grabbed the early lead, they never relinquished it and extended their unbeaten streak to 6 games with a 89-71 victory.

After the first quarter the RDC Kings led 22-15. Both Matt Matear and Shayne Stumpf contributed 6 points. Matear added 1 assist and Stumpf had 1 rebound.

In the second quarter the RDC Kings outscored the Clippers 25-14 and at the half the Kings were up 47-29. Ian Tevis had 9 points and 3 rebounds in the second quarter.

Each team scored 21 points in the third quarter and the Kings took a 68-50 lead. Ian Tevis accumulated a 3 quarter total of 16 points, 1 block, 1 assist and 5 rebounds while sinking 4-of-5 free throws.

The final quarter saw the Kings and Clippers each score 21 points once again and the game ended 89-71 in favour of the RDC Kings. Matear and Tevis each added 6 points in the final quarter. 

Despite a 6-0 record, Kings Head Coach Clayton Pottinger continually looks for ways to improve.

"Through the year we are averaging over 100 points a game and a lot of that is free play as we allow the players to go. We are trying to get our players to be more methodical about what we do on the offensive end," said Pottinger. "Down the stretch that will matter. We saw some growing pains of that tonight as we pace the game down and try to move it a little bit more."

Again, Matt Matear and Shayne Stumpf were effective at both ends of the court for the Kings.

"Matear and Stumpf both played really well tonight. Between them I think they had close to 20 rebounds and 40 points," said Pottinger. "We will continue to need them to do that bail us out.  It really was key in the third and fourth quarter when Briercrest made a push and Matear made 3 offensive rebounds in a row. That helped spark us to keep us going."

Shayne Stumpf was named the Kings player-of-the-game and finished with 16 points, 1 block, 3 assists and 6 rebounds.

The Kings did a nice job of focussing on tonight's game and not looking too far ahead.

"We wanted to make sure we didn't look past Briercrest," said Pottinger. "We have to make sure that we are diligent in our approach and not get careless."

The Red Deer College Kings improve to 6-0 on the season and remain in first place in the ACAC Men's Basketball South Division. At the RDC Main Gym Saturday, Nov. 19 it is a battle of the undefeated teams as the Kings play against the Medicine Hat College Rattlers (4-0) at 3:00 p.m.