The Kings open their season with two straight losses

The Red Deer Polytechnic Kings just could not stop the St. Mary's University Lightning in basketball action on Saturday in Calgary with a 91-78 loss.

It was quite a defensive showdown in the first three minutes of this rematch between the Kings and the Lightning. The first point was not scored until a three-pointer was hit by the Lightning at the seventh minute. This led to St. Mary's going on a 9-0 run. But this must have sparked the Kings offence as they went on an 8-0 run to come within one of the Lightning. Red Deer would tie it up later on with a three-pointer from second-year guard Pierce Shybunka. After some back and forth action, the Red Deer Kings were down 19-15 at the end of the first quarter. The Kings were led by Shybunka with five points and Brock Dewsbery for the Lightning finished off the quarter with seven points.

The second-half featured lots of action on both sides of the court. At this point, there was no team that was dominating the other. It was a battle of which team was going to crack first so they can capitalize on their mistakes. So far, both teams were playing well offensively and defensively. At the end of the second half, the Lightning had a 44-40 lead. Each team only gave up six steals. The Kings outscored the Lightning in the second quarter 26-25 which was led by rookie post Jose Mauro Barrozo Junior with 15 points. Dewsberry continued to lead his team going into the second half with 16 points.

Like yesterday, the Lightnings offence blew up in the third quarter. St. Mary's would go on a 13-2 run to give the Lightning a 55-42 just under four minutes into the opening of the second half. This would lead to the Calgary-based team taking a 66-53 lead into the fourth quarter. The Kings were shut down to only nine points in the third.

But being down by 13 with 10 minutes left to play did not stop the Kings from battling back and clawing themselves back into the game. The incredible fourth quarter performance was led by Payton Baltzer and Eduardo Crespo who really took the team on their shoulders. Crespo was grabbing rebounds and shooting the ball well before he fouled out. As for Baltzer, he was drawing fouls and scoring for the Kings. With under three minutes left to play, the Kings were only down by seven points, and they were not giving up. But the Lightnings offence was too strong, and they doubled their lead to 14 enroute to a 91-78 victory over the Kings.

Jose Mauro was named the player of the game for the Kings with 21 points and 14 rebounds. For the Lightning, Brock Dewsberry had an impressive night with 31 points, seven rebounds and four assists.

The Kings are back in action next weekend against the Medicine Hat College Rattlers for back-to-back home games at the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre. The first match is at 8pm on October 28 and the second game will tip-off just after 3 pm on the 29^th.