The RDC Kings are playing a bit shorthanded but you’d never know it.
The Kings are without veteran forward Joel Carroll, who missed his second game in a row with an ankle injury, yet rolled to a 101-67 victory over the NAIT Ooks in Alberta Colleges Men’s Basketball League play before close to 400 fans at RDC Friday.
“With Joel out it definitely takes away one of our leaders, but it gives a chance for some of the other guys to step up and they did a good job of taking the minutes,” said Kings head coach Clayton Pottinger.
David Poole and Jacob Cusumano filled in for Carroll with Poole finishing with 13 points and five rebounds and Cusumano eight points.
“As we’ve mentioned before the big thing is we have more depth this year and the product we put on the floor in practice is more competitive and that carries over to the game,” added Pottinger.
The Ooks, much like the Kings, don’t have an over abundance of height, but they do have some good athletes, but not the depth of the Kings.
“They put some pressure on us and do have some good players in some positions, but not the depth they’ve had in the past,” said Pottinger. “But they have a good coach and they will be there at the end of the season.”
Overall Pottinger liked what he saw from his troops.
“It was a good game for us, but I still think we can get better, then again we always are trying to improve. But this game did make more of a statement than we have in a couple of other games.”
Robert Piece continues his outstanding play with 19 points and 14 rebounds while Ashaunti Hogan had 15 points and four boards, Samuel Lolik 13 points and 14 rebounds and Brian Prenoslo 16 points and five rebounds. Matthieu Johnson had 23 points for the Ooks while former King Brock McMillan had 14 and Shaquille Bedminster 13.
Ooks 76 Queens 48.
It was the story of two halves for the Queens, who led 32-29 at the half before falling 76-48 to the undefeated Ooks, 3-0.
“About midway through the third quarter we stopped scoring and then we stopped rebounding and looked slow and that is their game . . . they tried to make us slow and did just that,” said Queens head coach Mike Woollard.
The Queens were anything but slow the first half as they had their transition game in high gear, led by point guard Melissa Woolley.
The second half saw the Ooks press take it’s toll as RDC ran into turnover problems, giving the NAIT a number of easy baskets.
“They have a good team and roll two very similar lines,” said Woollard. “They crash the boards and press for 40 minutes. We have a couple of injuries so we are only five or six deep and it that hurt.”
Still despite the loss the Queens looked to take another step forward.
“This was a better team than we played before and it’s the second game in a row where we led at half time. We have 11 rookies so if we keep taking steps forward we have to be pleased and eventually we’ll be OK.
“We’ll look at what happened between the first and second halves tonight and we have a smart group and they’ll make the changes.”
Woolley led the Queens with 16 points and four rebounds while Desirae Paterson had 13 points and seven boards. Teighan Ponto had eight points and five rebounds. Lindsey Papenhuyzen had 13 points and Josephine Peacock 12 for NAIT.
The RDC teams host Keyano College today with the women tipping off at 1 p.m. and the men will follow.
Hockey Queens 4 Trojans 1
CALGARY — For the second straight day the RDC Queens downed the SAIT Trojans 4-1 in Alberta Colleges Women’s Hockey League play.
Jade Petrie continued her solid play with a pair of goals and an assist while Emily Lougheed and Gillian Altheim added single markers.
Caitlyn Janzen, making her first start in goal after recovering from a concussion, made 18 saves with only Reanne Gouw beating her at 1:06 of the third period.
The Queens, who led 2-0 and 3-0 by periods, had 32 shots on Chelsie Lowe in the SAIT goal.
The Queens are off until Nov. 22 when they host Grant MacEwan.
l The RDC volleyball squads are in action tonight when they host The Kings University College, with the women getting underway at 6 p.m., followed by the men.
drode@www.reddeeradvocate.com