Kings and Queens tame the lions, both use big fourth quarters to walk away with victories

Red Deer, October 27, 2023 – The Red Deer Polytechnic Kings and Queens tamed the Ambrose University Lions on Friday evening in Red Deer.

See below for more information regarding each game.

Women's Basketball – Ambrose University Lions 57 at Queens 80

It was a tightly contested game with the Queens leading 13-10 with under three minutes left to play in the first quarter. The Lions had troubles in the early goings breaking the Polytechnics half-court press but the Queens could not capitalize on the steals they created with their defensive pressure. RDP would go on an eight-point run to finish the quarter and lead the Lions 24-12.

The Lions would finally end their scoreless streak with two free throws but not before the Queens added five more to start the second quarter. But in the final two minutes of the half, Ambrose University found their scoring and defensive groove as they would go on a nine-point run before Queens forward Salomie Nuako (Open Studies) answered with a two-point jumper. Just before the buzzer went for the end of the half, Lions forward Marin Barkey (Behavioural Science) hit a three-pointer to put her team down by just 10 with the Queens leading 42-32.

Barkey was the Lions co-lead in points with eleven which happened to be the total amount of points forward Peighton Melton (Bachelor of Arts in Multidisciplinary Studies) had to lead her Queens at the half.

RDP would extend its lead to 23 in the second half as they led the Lions 65-42 at the end of the third quarter.

The Lions would force Queens Head Coach Avery Harrison to call a timeout as the Calgary post-secondary school found the holes in RDP's defence early on in the fourth. But the Queens ran away with it in the final quarter to defeat the Lions 80-57.

Harrison explained the Queens defence is really standing out to him early on this season.

"I think what is working very well right now is how hard we work on defence and our ball pressure. I thought we moved the ball fairly well. We broke certain things down during practice this past week and it made a difference tonight. But I really think conditioning is very key so I think we will be doing a lot of running in practice next week."

The players of the game were awarded to Lions Momoore Akinfemi (Open Studies) and Queens Sandra Garcia-Bernal (Educational Assistant). Akinfemi finished her evening with eight points and five rebounds. Garcia-Bernal had 10 points, seven assists and five rebounds. These seven assists set a new RDP record with a total of 268 in her five years with the Queens.

These two teams will battle it out in a rematch tomorrow evening in Calgary.

Men's Basketball – Ambrose University Lions 65 at Kings 88

The Red Deer Polytechnic Kings used a strong fourth quarter to defeat the Ambrose University Lions on Friday evening.

After giving up the first bucket of the game, the Kings would go on a 16-point run while holding the Lions to just two points in the first seven minutes of the game. Forward Lucas Pedersen (Business Administration) would finally end Ambrose's scoreless streak with a three-pointer from the corner, which sparked the Lions defense to shut out the Kings for two consecutive minutes while crawling back into the game on the scoreboard. At the end of the quarter, RDP had a 19-15 lead.

Lions Six-foot-seven forward Guilherme Ferreira (Business Administration) would spark his team with a massive two-hand slam in the paint over top of his defender in the first two minutes of the second half. This ended up being a huge play for Ambrose as they went on a 7-0 run to tie the game up at 24. With 0.8 seconds on the clock in the first half, a three-point play by guard Hudson Wiebe (Bachelor of Science in Biology) put the Lions up 39-36 at the end of the second quarter. Wiebe would lead the Lions in points with 10 while the Kings were led by guard Efe Iyamu (Open Studies) with 16 at the end of the half.

But Iyamu and the Kings would retake their lead in the first two minutes of the third quarter. RDP would build on this as the quarter went along and found themselves up by 10 five minutes into the second half. After a buzzer-beating layup by guard Matthew Henry-Harrison, the Lions found themselves down by just 12 going into the final quarter with the Kings up 66-54.

The Kings expanded on this lead in the fourth to take the first game of this two-game set against the Lions with a score of 88-65.

Head Coach Jedell Foster was quite impressed with how the Kings bounced back after a tough loss in Calgary last Sunday with a big win against the Lions.

"It was touch-and-go in the first half as they had a small lead going into the third quarter. But we moved the ball around better in the second half which led to a lot of scoring opportunities that we took advantage of. In his first year at RDP, Efe Iyamu has really worked hard and taken on a huge scoring load so far this season which I am quite impressed with.

The players of the game were awarded to Lions Lucas Pedersen and Kings Efe Iyamu. Pedersen had 13 points and seven rebounds while Iyamu had 20 points and seven rebounds.

These two teams will tip-off tomorrow evening at 8 pm at Ambrose University for the rubber game of this home-and-home series.