Queens calm the storm in Calgary, Kings fall in a close one against the Lightning

Calgary, January 26, 2024 – In a game full of turnovers, the Red Deer Polytechnic Queens took the first of two games against the St. Mary's University Lightning with an 80-54 victory. The Kings would fall to 2-4 in the month of January after dropping game one of the home-and-home series against the Lightning.

See below for more information regarding each game.

Queens Basketball – Queens 80 at St. Mary's University Lightning 54

The Queens got off to a great start as they jumped out to an early 12-4 lead in the early goings of the first quarter. Following a made three-pointer by the Lightning, RDP would score eight consecutive points to take a 22-7 lead into a St. Mary's timeout. The visitors would take a 24-8 into the final 10 minutes of the first half.

In the first few minutes of the second quarter, the Queens faced some adversity with the Lightning out-rebounding the Polytechnic in the offensive zone and making it a very close game. But RDP pulled away in the last five minutes of the quarter and would take a 41-23 into the halftime break. Forward Jayden Demchuk (Practical Nurse Diploma) led the Queens offence with 10 points in the first half with post Janai Hubert (Bachelor of Kinesiology) right behind the nursing student with nine.

The Queens continued to force turnovers in the third quarter which led to the Polytechnic taking a 68-36 lead into the final 10 minutes of the game. Going into the fourth quarter, the Queens scored 31 points on 28 turnovers but they were also giving up their fair of steals with the Polytechnic turning over the ball 27 times in the same time frame.

Down by 32, the Lightning came out on all cylinders looking to make a comeback in the fourth as they went on a 13-2 run to start the quarter. Despite being outscored 18-12 in the final 10 minutes to play, the Queens held on to defeat St. Mary's University 80-54.

The Queens player of the game was awarded to Demchuk who had a game-high 19 points and nine rebounds in the win.

These two teams will be back at it tomorrow night in Red Deer at the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre for a 6 pm tip-off.

Kings Basketball– Kings 96 at St. Mary's University Lightning 103

Following a slow start in Calgary for both teams, the Kings jumped out to a 17-11 lead which forced the Lightning to call a timeout with this being the largest lead of the game at this point. But before the end of the quarter, St. Mary's made it a four-point game and went into the second down 21-17.

At the half, the Kings found themselves down 47-39 after Lightning guard Caleb Jipp made a three-point jumper as the buzzer went for the halftime break. In his first game back in over two months, guard Eduardo Crespo (Business Diploma) led the Kings' offence with 12 points. On 11 tries in the first half, the Kings have yet to make a three-point jumper while the Lightning have made five on 15 attempts. Jipp made four of those five three-pointers to lead his team in points with 17.

In what was a highly-offensive third quarter, the Kings managed to make it a four-point game as they outscored the Lightning 33-29 and went into the final 10 minutes of the game down by 76-72. After not making any three-pointers in the first half, the Kings were able to go five-for-10 from beyond the arc.

But this is the closest the Kings would get to tying it up as they would fall 103-96 after being outscored 27-24 in the fourth quarter.

Crespo was named the player of the game after finishing with a team-high 27 points off the bench in the loss.

These two teams will be right back at it tomorrow night at 8 pm in Red Deer for the rubber match of the home-and-home series.