Kings and Queens Basketball sweep the Trojans, Kings defeat the reigning champions

Red Deer, October 20, 2023 – Both the Red Deer Polytechnic Queens were successful in their opening matches against the SAIT Trojans as they both walked away with victories in their home openers.

See below for more information regarding each game.

Women's Basketball – SAIT Trojans 53 at Queens 76

The Red Deer Polytechnic Queens would start their championship defence off with a win in their home and season opener against the SAIT Trojans.

With a basket by the visiting Trojans from guard Macey Mulholland (Business & Entrepreneurship), the 2023/2024 women's basketball season commenced at Red Deer Polytechnic. On the first position of their season, Queens Heena Sidhu (Bachelor of Arts in Multidisciplinary Studies) drained a three to put them up by one in the early stages of the first. Following the three-pointer, the Queens would not look back and continued to lead the Trojans 23-11 at the end of the first quarter.

Following a big block in their end, Queens forward Peighton Melton (Bachelor of Arts in Multidisciplinary Studies) would finish a beautiful tic-tac-toe play that was part of an 11-2 run by the Queens. But in the last half of the quarter, the Trojans outscored the Polytechnic 12-7 and found themselves down by just 16 at the half. SAIT was led by Brook Baker with seven points but not far behind her was Mulholland and forward Anegor Wol (Journalism) with six buckets. Forward Jayden Demchuk (Practical Nursing Diploma) and Sidhu were tied for the team lead in points at the half with eight. But the Queens saw scoring contributions from six other student-athletes.

The Queens would continue to outscore their opponent as they scored 16 points and held the Trojans to just 11. But in the early goings of the fourth quarter, SAIT was finally finding their groove and the holes in the Queens defence as the team out of Calgary was outscoring Red Deer in the first three minutes of the final quarter.

In the end, the Queens would defeat the Trojans 76-53.

Head Coach Avery Harrison explained the Queens had a few good practices leading up to tonights match.

"We struggled in the pre-season. I think some of our rotations on defence last week started to work for us in practice and it carried over a week later. Their were plays where we got steals and were really hustling on defence. Two weeks ago this would not have happened."

The players of the game were awarded to Trojans Brook Baker (Respiratory Therapy) and Queens Jayden Demchuk. Baker finished the game with 17 points and 11 rebounds, 11 of those coming on defense. Demchuk also had an impressive night under the net with 11 rebounds and also had 14 points.

These two teams will be back at it Sunday afternoon at 1 pm in Calgary.

Men's Basketball – SAIT Trojans 82 at Kings 73

The Red Deer Polytechnic Kings managed to defeat the reigning ACAC and CCAA Champions in their opening match of the season against the SAIT Trojans.

Guard Marcus Masters (Open Studies) would open up the 2023/2024 season at Red Deer Polytechnic with a three-pointer right off the tip-off. But local guard Mac Manyluk (Bachelor of Business Administration) would follow this up with two points in the paint for the Kings as he would score the first bucket for his team under their new head coach Jedell Foster. Following these two early scores, it was very much a defensive game as the first quarter went along. The Kings would break out in the final minute of the quarter to take a 17-13 lead into the second.

As the Trojans entered the second quarter, they managed to battle back and make it a one-point game. But the energy shifted after a dunk from guard Derrick Amponsa (Open Studies) that sent him and his teammates into a frenzy. The Trojans would quickly silence them with a bucket on the following play, and a two-hand slam by forward Will Tong (Open Studies) a minute later. The Trojans still found themselves down by five with two minutes left to play in the half and at the end of the quarter, the Kings were up 41-30.

Both Kings Tyrique Walters and Trojans Masters led their respective team's with 11 at the half.

The Trojans would fight in the early goings of the second half and made it a closer game but the Kings would explode in the late stages of the third on offence and found themselves up by 18 with two minutes left to play. At the end of the quarter, the Kings had a commanding 64-45 lead as they went into the final 10 minutes of the game.

In the first two minutes of the fourth, Trojans forward Kuol Kuol (Fitness & Wellness Management) would drive from the three-point arch into the paint and put back a two-hand slam to bring the energy back on the Trojans side of the court as they were down by 16. Kuol would put back his second dunk of the night but it was not enough as the Kings managed to defeat the reigning ACAC and CCAA champions 82-73.

Head Coach Jedell Foster explained the Kings played as a team.

"On defence and offence, our team was really in sync. I have preached to the guys that we want to be team-minded first and the stats showed tonight that we can play as a team. Our player of the game had just eight points and the leader scorer had 16 with plenty of others in the double digits as well."

The players of the game were awarded to Trojans Marcus Masters and Kings Jose Mauro. Masters had a 28 point performance with Mauro finishing with eight points and eight rebounds.

They will face one another in a rematch in Calgary on Sunday afternoon.