Kings shoot well against the Kodiaks while the Queens drop their first of the season
Red Deer, January 12, 2024 – The story of the night was the Red Deer Polytechnic Queens were handed their first loss of the season by the hands of the Lethbridge College Kodiaks, who held the Queens to just eight points in the final ten minutes of the game.
On the men's side, the Kings got off to a great start to their second half of the season as they defeated the Kodiaks 89-75.
See below for more information regarding each game.
Queens Basketball – Lethbridge College Kodiaks 63 at Queens 53
It was all defence and some missed opportunities to open up this game that features the top two teams in the South Division with the Queens striking first two and a half minutes into the game with a two-point jumper from guard Heena Sidhu (Bachelor of Arts in Multidisciplinary Studies).
But the Kodiaks stayed neck-and-neck with the home team in the first half of the quarter as they managed to draw fouls and capitalize on their chances from the line which is something the Queens could not do early on in the game. Following an outstanding final two minutes of the quarter, the Kodiaks took a small 16-13 lead into the second quarter.
The Queens managed to tie it up at 24 with less than five minutes to go in the half with a three-point jumper from guard Orianna Patterson (Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences). RDP would see a two-point lead diminished very quickly after guard Tylee Perry drained a three-point shot of her own off an inbound play. Following a buzzer-beating three-point jumper from guard Lauren France (Bachelor of Arts in Multidisciplinary Studies), the Queens would take a 34-28 lead into the second half.
In a very low-scoring 10 minutes, the Kodiaks managed to claw back to make it a four-point game and went into the fourth quarter down 45-41.
Lethbridge College continued their impressive transition game from defence to offence and found themselves in the lead for the first time since the early stages of the second quarter. The Kodiaks managed to hold the lead for the remainder of the quarter and walked away with an impressive 63-53 victory over the Queens with Kodiaks guard Hannah Helton (Exercise Science) putting up a game-high 20 points in the win. She was named the player of the game for the visitors. As for the home team, this honour went to guard Heena Sidhu, who finished with 10 points and four rebounds in the loss.
Head Coach Avery Harrison explained after the game, that the Kodiaks simply just wanted it more than the Queens tonight.
"They played a great 4th quarter and shut us down. We need to do a better job on the rebounds tomorrow afternoon. The Kodiaks owned that stat line tonight and when we conceded, we just did not fight back."
These teams will be right back at it tomorrow afternoon at 1 pm with the number one spot in the division on the line.
Kings Basketball – Lethbridge College Kodiaks 75 at Kings 89
It was a tight contest between these two South Division rivals as they fought in the opening 10 minutes of the second half of the 2023/2024 season. But it was the Kings on top following the first quarter as they went into the second with a 19-15 lead.
The intensity continued in the second quarter with the Kings extending their lead to 16 points and went into the half-time break with a 45-29 lead. Centre Jose Mauro (Business Certificate) dropped 15 points in the half and was a perfect two-for-two deep range. The Kodiaks were led by guard Mason Hoffman (General Studies) who finished the first 20 minutes with nine points.
Out of the dressing room, the Kodiaks came ready to fight as they battled with the Kings in the early goings of the second half and kept it close with the Polytechnic narrowly outscoring Lethbridge 17-16 to go into the final quarter down by 17 points.
In the last five minutes of the fourth quarter, the Kodiaks hit back-to-back three-pointers to make this game very interesting but in the end, the Kings came out on top with an 89-75 victory.
Head Coach Jedell Foster was quite impressed with his team tonight.
"I thought we shot the ball very well and the stat line shows. We went 50.7 per cent from the field while also shooting above 30 per cent from deep range. These are impressive numbers in our league with most teams averaging under 50 per cent a game. But we are not done yet. We still got a battle ahead of us in the rematch tomorrow."
The Kodiaks player of the game was awarded to guard Mason Hoffman who finished with a team-high 18 points while the Kings player of the game, Bernardo Moller (Business Certificate), finished with a team-high 23 points in the victory.
These two teams will go head-to-head for the second consecutive day with tip-off around 3 pm.