Kodiaks 66 Queens 50
It was a loss but one that the RDC Queens can look back on and take more positives out of than negatives.
For close to 35 minutes the Queens played right with the number three ranked team in the country before the Lethbridge Kodiaks managed to pull away for a 66-50 victory in Alberta Colleges Women’s Basketball League play at RDC Saturday afternoon.
“Our girls played a helluva game,” said Queens head coach Ken King. “We were coming off a 30-point loss to them (83-53 on Friday) and turned it into a tight game with only a couple of significant differences in the game
“We didn’t make any real significant adjustments … nothing drastic it was a matter of us showing up and doing what we could do in our end of the floor.”
The Queens led 17-16 after the first quarter, trailed 26-25 at the half and were behind 37-35 after three quarters. The Kodiaks did find their scoring touch in the final quarter, hitting 10 of 17 shots from the field which turned out to be the difference.
“We knew after the first half that the teams would come back to what their shooting averages usually are and they turned it around a bit in the second half,” said King. “We also knew they would turn up the defensive pressure as they’re not used to be in a close game and I thought our girls did a great job against that.”
What King wasn’t pleased with was some of the RDC fans.
“I spent most of the second half of the game coaching against the parents of some of our girls. They were getting us over excited, yelling things at our players. These are our fans yelling which made for more mistakes. I’m trying the calm the girls down and we have fans cheering for our team causing the opposite reaction.
“We need positive energy in our gym and today we as coaches and our bench felt they were working against us. It’s not why we lost but it exists and it’s frustrating. We get enough of that when we’re on the road.”
Dedra Janvier had another solid game with 16 points and four rebounds while Lauren Bailey was the RDC player of the game with 10 points, two rebounds and two assists and played solid defence. Kiana Mintz finished with nine points and four rebounds while Emily White had six points, seven rebounds and four assists and Eva Bonde seven rebounds and four assists. Logan Moncks had 25 points and Emma Lowry 12 points and 16 rebounds for Lethbridge.
The loss left the Queens at 5-10 with six games remaining, all against teams below them in the standings.
“We need to play with passion and energy and need to be consistent every game and show up for the next six,” said King.
Kodiaks 86 Kings 77
The RDC Kings weren’t overly sharp offensively the first 20 minutes of their meeting with the Kodiaks, but their defence gave them a 41-31 lead at the break. The second half they not only struggled offensively against the Lethbridge zone, but their defence let them down, allowing the Kodiaks to outscore them 55-36 on their way to an 86-77 loss.
“It started in the third quarter when we were outscored by 10, then another nine in the fourth quarter,” said Kings head coach Clayton Pottinger. “We have to learn how to finish. Every loss except one this season we’ve had significant leads and let it slip away.”
Pottinger was upset with the way the Kings handled the Lethbridge zone.
“We knew they would play zone and knew how to break it, but we seemed to panic … we didn’t execute against it. When we watch the video we’ll see guys wide open.”
The loss left the Kings at 9-6 and more than likely leaving them in fourth place in the South Division. Lethbridge, SAIT and Medicine Hat are all 10-3.
However, Pottinger isn’t worried about where they finish.
“We just have to focus on winning our next six games and let the chips fall where they may,” he said. “Anything can happen in the playoffs. We’ve defeated the other three teams in our division and they’ve defeated us. It’s a matter of getting healthy and when we do we can play with any of those teams.”
The Kings once again played without point guard Kai Greene (ankle).
Ian Tevis finished with 31 points, eight rebounds, three assists and four steals while Matt Matear had 14 points, 13 rebounds and three assists.
Shayne Stumpf had eight points and nine boards and Spence Klassen eight points.
Cory Richardson had 26 points for Lethbridge.
Danny Rode is a retired Advocate reporter who can be reached at drode@www.reddeeradvocate.com. His work can also be seen at Danny’s blog at rdcathletics.ca.