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Kings fall to Lions in back-end of weekend basketball set

RDC Kings head coach Clayton Pottinger knows he has to find a way to play better defence if the Kings hope to win the Alberta Colleges Men’s Basketball League title.So Saturday, following a 99-89 win over the Ambrose University Lions Friday at RDC, Pottinger made several changes to the defence for a return match at Ambrose Saturday.

Lions 118 Kings 100

CALGARY – RDC Kings head coach Clayton Pottinger knows he has to find a way to play better defence if the Kings hope to win the Alberta Colleges Men’s Basketball League title.

So Saturday, following a 99-89 win over the Ambrose University Lions Friday at RDC, Pottinger made several changes to the defence for a return match at Ambrose Saturday.

They obviously didn’t work as the Lions downed the Kings 118-100.

“We made a few adjustments and as you can see they didn’t work,” said Pottinger.

“They shot well and were hot in their gym, but still this was on us.

“I can count on one hand the number of times a team has scored a 100 points on us since I came here. There was no commitment to defence and a lack of hustle.”

You could see the Kings giving up points in the fourth quarter as they tried to put pressure on the Lions, but that wasn’t what bothered Pottinger.

“We were bleeding from the start.”

The Kings fell behind 23-18 in the first quarter then were outscored 33-30, 31-28 and 31-24 in the final three quarters.

Anthony Ottley led the Kings with 32 points and 13 rebounds while Matt Matear added 17 points and 13 boards and Khurram Sultan had 14 points.

Kyler Shula had 38 for Ambrose.

The Kings remain in first place in the South at 11-4 with Medicine Hat dropping to 10-5 with two losses to SAIT, 6-10. Olds is at 10-3.

Queens 68 Lions 60

After a slow start the Queens took control in the second quarter and went on to a 68-60 victory over the Lions.

RDC trailed 12-7 after 10 minutes, but outscored the Lions 23-9 in the second quarter to take a 30-21 lead. They were outscored 22-21 in the third quarter with the teams hitting 17 points each in the fourth.

Eva Bonde was the RDC player of the game with 15 points, six assists and five rebounds and committed just one turnover in close to 39 minutes of play. Dedra Janvier added 18 points and five rebounds in 32 minutes.

The Queens played without outstanding forward Emily White (flu) then lost Kennedy Burgess with a minor ankle injury in the first quarter and Maddi Whiting in the third when she tweaked her ankle injury.

One of the negatives for head coach Ken King was a technical foul.

“There was no need for me to take that and I’d like to apologize to the team and fans,” he said. “However, the girls did a great job of picking us up right after.”

RDC has next weekend off before facing St. Mary’s in a home-and-home series, beginning Feb. 12 at RDC. They clash with Olds and Briercrest to finish the season.

The Queens have a 7-8 record and are tied with Olds, 7-6, two points ba