Early in the basketball season is the time for experiments and Thursday afternoon the RDC Queens did just that.
In game 2 of the Thanksgiving Classic preseason tournament, the Queens rolled out a young lineup to help them gain some experience and suffered a 64-44 defeat against The King’s University Eagles.
“We were really just looking to get players in situations to challenge them and use some girls in bigger minutes then they’re used to. Get them as much experience as we could for a lot of those first-year athletes,” said Queens head coach Ken King.
“Need to see consistency, just in the things we can control. Box outs and controlling our defensive glass. Sprinting the floor and not jogging the floor. Those things that whether you’re in first or fifth year you can control.”
Rookie guard Samantha Wade played big minutes in the loss and is one of 13 first-year players battling for more court time. The Saskatchewan native is excited for the opportunity to fight for playing time on the team and said she’s already learned plenty from the first handful of games.
“Players are a lot closer to you. They don’t give you as much room and the game is much quicker paced. You’re running up and down the floor a lot more,” she said.
“It’s exciting because everyone is working so much harder in practice than if you weren’t trying so hard to get minutes. Everyone is working really hard.”
First-year Zeina El Barky, all the way from Cairo, Egypt also had an impressive performance Thursday afternoon with eight points in just one half of play.
Mallory Uskiw, the second-year forward from Beaumont had seven points in the loss.
The Queens also dropped a 53-37 game Friday night to the Concordia University of Edmonton Thunder. The Kings were on the wrong side of a 93-73 game against the Okanagan College Coyotes.
RDC will finish the Thanksgiving Classic off Saturday afternoon at 12:30 p.m., against the Keyano College Huskies.
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
