Kings bounce back into win column, Hubert drops a career-high 31 points in the Queens victory

Medicine Hat, January 20, 2024 – Forward Janai Hubert went off on Saturday afternoon as she dropped a career-high 31 points in the Red Deer Polytechnic Queens victory in Medicine Hat to complete the weekend sweep while the Kings bounced back into the win column with an 88-76 victory over the Rattlers.

See below for more information regarding each game.

Queens Basketball – Queens 88 at Medicine Hat College Rattlers 38

The Red Deer Polytechnic Queens make it three wins in a row with back-to-back victories over the Medicine Hat College Rattlers this weekend.

The Queens got their offence going 15 seconds into the game with a three-point jumper from forward Jayden Demchuk (Practical Nurse Diploma) to give her team a very early lead in game two against the Rattlers this weekend. For the next few minutes, it was a very close quarter with the Rattlers trying to stay neck-and-neck with the Queens. But RDP pulled away in the final minute of the first and took a 26-12 lead into the second.

In the first six minutes of the second, the Queens held the Rattlers to just one point while scoring 12 to extend their lead to 25 points. Medicine Hat managed to drop 10 points in the final four minutes of the half but the Queens still would take a 46-23 lead into the third quarter. For the second consecutive game, centre Janai Hubert (Bachelor of Kinesiology) would lead the Queens' offence with 10 points at the half.

In the third, the Queens continued their defensive dominance over the Rattlers as the Polytechnic held the home team to just seven points in the quarter and would take a 64-30 lead into the fourth.

The Queens offence went off in the final 10 minutes as they scored 24 while their defence held Medicine Hat to single digits for the second consecutive quarter as RDP walked away with a 88-38 victory.

Hubert went off as she dropped a career-high 31 points in the win while missing just one field goal jump shot out of 11 attempts. She was named the player of the game.

The Queens will be on the road next Friday as they head down to Calgary to take on the St. Mary's University Lightning before heading back up to Red Deer for the rematch on Saturday. Both games will commence at 6 pm.

Kings Basketball – Kings 88 at Medicine Hat College Rattlers 76

As the Kings look to bounce back into the win column, they got off to a good start in Medicine Hat as they jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the first couple of minutes of the game. But the Rattlers rebounded and fought back to make it a one point game as they went into the second quarter with RDP leading 16-15.

Despite the Rattlers showing some adversity in most of the second quarter, the Kings found their groove in the late stages of the second quarter and took a 40-36 lead into the third. For the second consecutive game, at the half, guard Efe Iyamu (Open Studies) led the offence with nine points with seven of his teammates also contributing to the 40 total points RDP scored in the first 20 minutes of the game. 18 of these points came off 15 turnovers while the Kings only turned over the ball four times with none of those leading to any points for the Rattlers.

The Kings offence came out to play in the third quarter as they outscored their opponent 27-14 in the first 10 minutes of the second half and found themselves up by 17 points as they entered the final quarter of their doubleheader weekend against the Rattlers.

But the fourth quarter got off to a rough start for the visitors as they were outscored 10-4 by Medicine Hat College in the first two minutes of the game to decrease the Polytechnic's lead to just 11 points. The Kings managed to hold on in the final three minutes of the game to defeat the Rattlers 88-76 despite being outscored by Medicine Hat 26-21 in the fourth quarter.

Iyamu finished with a team-high 19 points and was later named the player of the game.

The Kings will be back in action next weekend as they take on the St. Mary's University Lightning in a home-and-home series that starts in Calgary on Friday night at 8 pm.