The Kings fall by just three points to the Lightning, ending their season

Calgary, February 25, 2023 – Unfortunately, the Red Deer Polytechnic Kings Basketball season is over after falling to the St. Mary's University Lightning in a game that went right down to the wire.

The Kings managed to extend their season last night after a gusty win over the Medicine Hat College Rattlers which meant another South Division match-up with the Lightning. The winner of the game would book their ticket to the ACAC Men's Basketball Championship hosted by Ambrose University in Calgary.

The game started off strong with both teams wanting that win badly to make an appearance at the conference championships. The Lightning and the Kings went shot-for-shot for most of the opening quarter but at the end of the quarter, St. Mary's had the edge with a five-point lead.

The aggressive play continued into the second with the Kings fired up to take the lead which led to the Polytechnic winning the quarter and trailing the host by just one point going into the second half. Post Jose Mauro (Academic Upgrading) led his team with 15 points in the half.

But a strong third-quarter performance from the Lightning improved their lead to 11 points as they would enter the fourth quarter. St. Mary's was quite hot throughout the game shooting 43 per cent compared to the Kings 37 per cent from the field.

RDP just about matched this incredible performance in the fourth quarter as they held St. Mary's University to just 13 points, the lowest score in a quarter the whole game. But the 23 points the visiting team dropped was just three points shy of tying the game up and sending it to overtime. Guard Cole Wicker (Bachelor of Education) had the final shot and the ball rimmed out which meant the Lightning would move on to the playoffs with an 80-77 final score.

Mauro was named the player of the game with 32 points and 15 rebounds in what was an incredible game to finish his season.

Congratulations to the Kings on battling back in the regular season to make these two play-in games even possible. It was an amazing season and look forward to next season.