The Kings finish the regular season off with a win and give Szymanek a perfect send off

Red Deer, February 17, 2023 – In the final game for both teams of the 2022-2023 campaign, the Kings came away with the victory and ended their regular season off on a high note and a 77-63 victory.

Guard Cole Wicker (Bachelor of Education) opened the scoring with a long-range shot which happened to be the only points scored in the first five minutes of the game. But halfway through the quarter, the Kings would transition the momentum they gained off defense to their offense and jump out to a seven-point lead. The Thunder finally cracked the Polytechnic's defense and scored a layup at the four-minute mark of the first quarter which led to a small surge on their end to come within two points of the Kings as they went into the second quarter down 11-9.

The Thunder came out storming in the second quarter proving to the Kings they are ready to play and fight. With under four minutes to go, Concordia University found itself down by just one heading into a Kings timeout. Following the short break, both teams would go tit-for-tat on the next few possessions, equalizing each other's two-pointers. The Kings found themselves up at half with a score of 33-26. Kings post Jose Mauro (Academic Upgrading) led his team with 10 points in the half and forward Alex Maclean led the Thunder with 14 points.

It was a good start to the second half for the Kings as they came out on fire on offense. But the Thunder bounced back and fought the whole way to contain the Polytechnic's lead. At the end of the third quarter, the Kings were up 53-39.

But the Thunder started out the fourth quarter on an 8-3 run which was when Head Coach Darren Graham called a timeout to regroup his team. Following the timeout, the Thunder would hit a three-pointer to come within six points of the Kings. For the remainder of the quarter, each team went tit-for-tat on every bucket made which kept the eight-point difference. But as the game went on the Thunder could not contain the Kings and Red Deer finished the game off with a 77-63 victory.

Head Coach Darren Graham credited the defensive for tonight's victory.

"We played great defense as they did not score until five minutes into the game. The final score for them was in the 60s which is really good defensively. Our defense has really stepped up over the last few weeks which is good timing because in championship basketball you got to have good defensive efforts."

Forward Alex Maclean had 19 points and six rebounds on his way to being named the player of the game for his team. With this being forward Kevin Szymanek's last regular season game in Red Deer, he was named the player of the game. He had two points and two rebounds on the night.

This was the last regular season game for both teams. They will look on to the play-in round next weekend as they compete for a spot at the championships hosted by Keyano College in Fort McMurray.