Kings 102 Clippers 78
The RDC Kings looked more like themselves Saturday afternoon and it showed on the scoreboard as they downed the Briercrest Bible College Clippers 102-78 in Alberta Colleges Men’s Basketball League action at RDC.
The Kings were definitely a step ahead of their performance Friday when they needed a last second three-point shot by Lloyd Strickland to pull out a 76-74 victory over the Clippers.
“We’re beginning to play more relaxed,” said Strickland. “We practised hard, but that’s tough to transfer to a game. We’re still struggling off and on, but it was better today.”
Strickland, who helped Raymond win the provincial 4A high school championship last season, has stepped into the starting point guard role and fits in with the head coach Craig Behan’s quick tempo offence.
But the 19-year-old from Stirling indicated it took him some time to get used to the college game.
“The speed and physical play is different than high school and putting the game together with schooling is something to get used to,” he said.
Strickland said he was a bit surprised as the intensity of the league.
“We played some college teams when I was at Raymond and I didn’t expect this.”
But while Strickland had to adjust to the college league, one thing he didn’t need to do was learn how to win.
“I never seen failure in high school,” said Strickland, who won the provincial 1A title three years in Stirling before transferring to Raymond for Grade 12.
The win capped a weekend sweep by RDC as the Queens dumped the Clippers 49-40 Saturday after winning 57-51 Friday.
The Kings, 9-3, were still a little off early Saturday and were tied 23-23 after the first quarter. They grabbed a 49-40 lead at the half and, led by guard Graeme McCallum, pulled away to a 73-50 lead after three quarters.
McCallum, who saw limited playing time in the fourth quarter, finished with 26 points while Chris Porteous had 18 and Strickland added 10 points, six rebounds and four assists. Terrell Campbell had nine points and six boards while Sean Giscombe had five assists. Gradyn Childerhose finished with 17 points and four rebounds for the Clippers, 2-10.
“We were certainly sharper than we were Friday, we did more things we wanted to do, although we can still be better,” said Behan. “But the main thing was we won both games and got our feet back under us after the long layoff (since November).
“And the Clippers were a good team to come back against. They forced us to play defence and they play somewhat of an unorthodox style, which is something we need to be able to play against.”
Queens 49 Clippers 40
For the second day in a row the Queens trailed at the half, this time 26-23, before settling down in the second half.
The RDC squad picked up their defence in the final 20 minutes limiting the Clippers to seven points in both the third and fourth quarters.
“It wasn’t pretty, but the big difference is that we’re learning to compete,” said Queens head coach Dawn Smyth. “In the early part of the first half of the season we wouldn’t have come back in the second half and may have crumbled under the pressure. That’s not the case any more. We’re starting to play as a team, we rebound, move the ball and look for each other on the floor.
“And the girls trust each other.”
They also have a solid point guard in Katlyn Olsen, who took over the game in the third quarter when the Queens needed it the most. Trailing 35-33 she dished inside for a layup, then scored the next five points to put them ahead.
The win was the fifth in a row for the RDC squad, who sits at 5-7 while the Clippers are 0-12.
“But give Briercrest credit, they played hard, and forced us to win the game, they didn’t hand it to us,” added Smyth.
Olsen led the Queens with 12 points, three rebounds and four assists while Kim Njaa and Megan Ivancic had eight points each and Lauren Loyek 10 rebounds.
drode@www.reddeeradvocate.com