Broncs over Queens at Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre

Brent Forster - RDC

Red Deer, AB – In the RDC Queens' first game of the season at the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre, they improved as the game progressed, winning the third quarter, but the Broncos eventually picked up a 73 – 54 win.

Colby Brochu Photography

The Broncos jumped out to an early lead but the Queens battled back to even the contest 15 – 15. Olds College started to pull away, and at the half the Broncos led 37 – 23.

The RDC Queens had their best performance in the third quarter, outscoring the Broncos 16 – 11. The Queens added 15 in the fourth quarter but the Broncos completed a 73 – 54 win.

Queens Head Coach Ken King noted improvement as the game developed. "We are kind of becoming a second half team right now. Both last week and this week, we played substantially better," he says. "We won the third quarter, and the fourth would have been much closer if we didn't foul. I think we need to pay a little bit more attention to our youth and prepare mentally a little bit better."

Harneet Sidhu (14) Colby Brochu Photography

King felt that the play on the defensive side of the ball was good but too many turnovers were costly. "Olds has some strong weapons who could hurt us, but didn't really. Brittney Thibeaux got 21 points but she is someone who averaged 36 last year," he says. "I thought that our defence on her, and on number 7, Kyla Adams, was pretty good. We had 42 turnovers today, which is the second most we've ever allowed since I've been here. We had 25 of the 42 at half."

With some inconsistencies executing in close, King wants to challenge the Queens against taller defenders in practice. "We need to really come in mentally prepared and make sure that the players are as confident in themselves as we are in them," he says. "Getting more reps at finishing against people who are bigger is going to help. I'll be playing some defence next week and stand in the paint, and so will the assistant coaches because we need some size inside obviously."

Lauren Cardinal was selected as the Queens Player-of-the-Game, contributing 14 points, 1 block, 3 steals and 7 rebounds. Brittney Thibeaux led the way for Olds College with 21 points, 4 blocks, 6 steals and 12 rebounds.

Lauren Cardinal (8) Photo - Tony Hansen

"Lauren is steady eddy. She knows every play inside and out. She knows where to be. Her basketball IQ is very high. Now we are really allowing her to play free and use that," says King. "Those are big minutes for a forward at 35 and I thought that she did everything that we asked her to do today, and more. She is one of our captains, along with Sandra (Garcia-Bernal). She's leading. She's scoring. She's rebounding and I think that comes from her commitment to the fundamentals of basketball."

On Friday, October 26, the RDC Queens (0 - 2) will entertain the St. Mary's University Lightning (2 - 1) at 6:00 p.m. at the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre.