Balanced offensive attack pushes Kings over Lions

Brent Forster - RDC

The RDC Basketball Kings played the Ambrose University Lions Saturday evening at RDC and in an exciting game that came down to the wire the Kings used their well-rounded attack to win 76-74.

The Kings jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter. Eric Bakker and Solon Ellis hit from three-point range to push RDC ahead 15-11. However, the Lions finished strongly and at the end of the quarter the teams were even 18-18.

In the second quarter, the Kings started to pull away. Three-pointers from Solon Ellis and Spencer Klassen, along with an alley-oop dunk from Dshawn Tyrell gave RDC a 10 point edge (38-28). The crowd at RDC was ignited when Omon Edobar set up Dshawn Tyrell for the slam. At the half, the Kings led 41-30. Solon Ellis and Spencer Klassen contributed 8 points each over 2 quarters. Nikola Ivanovic had 11 for the Lions.

The Ambrose University Lions started to chip away at the 11 point lead in the third quarter and were within 4 (53-49) but the Kings pushed back and led 58-51 at the end of the quarter.

After Omon Edobar drained a three-pointer to jump the Kings ahead 64-59, the Lions battled and went on an 8-0 run to take a 67-64 lead in the fourth quarter. Minutes later, RDC evened the contest and then pulled away 74-71 with a smooth three-pointer from Daniel Powell. The Kings led 74-73 with 8 seconds left which created a lot of excitement for the fans. RDC eventually closed it out 76-74 as the Lions missed a final shot.

Dshawn Tyrell was chosen as the player-of-the-game for RDC. The Cook Apprenticeship student recorded 15 points, 10 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal and 1 block in the win. Nikola Ivanovic received the award for the Lions and totaled 16 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists.

Kings Basketball Head Coach Clayton Pottinger liked the level of execution in the first half especially. "We controlled the game in the first half. We talked about the Lions having some push in the second half," said Pottinger. "They have pride and this is for the playoffs. We didn't respond well in the third and fourth quarter but we did enough to win." 

The RDC Kings had six student-athletes finish with double digits in scoring. Daniel Powell scored 17 points, Dshawn Tyrell picked up 15, Spencer Klassen had 12, Eric Bakker and Omon Edobar recorded 11 points each, and Solon Ellis totaled 10. "Our balanced attack has been one of our calling cards," said Pottinger. "We still have a lot of work to do however. There are so many little things that we can do to show that killer instinct, and we hung on tonight." 

In the final weekend of the regular season, the third place Kings (12-7) will face seventh St. Mary's University Lightning (4-15). Friday, February 23, the two teams will compete in Calgary at 8:00 p.m. The RDC Kings will host the Lightning on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. at RDC.