The Queens sweep the Rattlers in ACAC basketball action
Red Deer, October 29 - Coming off a victory, the Red Deer Polytechnic Queens basketball team was looking for a sweep of the Medicine Hat College Rattlers this weekend. The Rattlers come into this match not winning a match and will look to end that streak this afternoon. But it was the Queens offence that was tough on the Rattlers leading to a 90-39 victory for Red Deer.
The Queens struck first right after the tip-off with a layup by veteran guard Amy Szymanek (Bachelor of Education Middle School) to put the Red Deer team up within five seconds of the start of the match. But on the Rattlers would match their pace with a two-pointer on their first possession of the game. An early timeout taken by the team from Medicine Hat after the guard Sandra Garcia-Bernal (Educational Assistant) scored an open lay-up. But the Rattlers still had a 7-6 lead going into that brief break.
Out of the timeout, the Queens would go on a 6-0 run before Kirstie Johnstone ended the run with a lay-up. The Rattlers were struggling to find their way through the polytechnic's half-court press as the Queens were stopping the ball very well in Medicine Hat's zone. This caused the Rattlers to score only one more basket after the timeout which made the score at the quarter break 18-11 for the Queens. After an absence from last nights game, Garcia-Bernal shined in the first with six points. For the Rattlers, it was second-year guard Janine Jonker leading her team with five.
It was quite an aggressive start to the quarter with both teams playing very tough defense holding the opposing team to only three points in the first three minutes. The Queens still pressing at half-court led to a steal by Szymanek and she would capitalize on it putting the home team up by 15 over Medicine Hat with less than three minutes to go in the half. Less then 10 seconds to go, the Queens would sprint down the court and Swedish forward Sophie Melin (Bachelor of Arts Psychology) would hit a jumper to take a 43-22 lead into the half-time break.
Szymanek would take the team lead in points with 11 after a quiet quarter from Garcia-Bernal. For the Rattlers, Jonker would still lead the team with seven, but it was rookie-guard Alia Boulanger who was right behind her with six points.
The Queens continued to show their offensive dominance over the Rattlers exploding to 21 points in seven minutes compared to the Rattlers six. The visiting team was struggling to find their offensive footing but managed to draw shooting fouls after driving into the paint. At the end of the third quarter, the Queens doubled up the visiting team 68-34.
Boulanger for the Rattlers was hot from beyond the arc with half of her 12 points coming from three-pointers. Szymanek would lead the Queens with 19 and Garcia-Bernal shined in the third quarter with a lot of fast break points. She finished the third with 14 total points and eight assists.
The Queens offence continued to shine in the last quarter of this weekend match-up with the Rattlers. They would explode for 22 points in the quarter with points from the paint, and inside and outside the three-point line. But it was their defence that really showed up in the fourth quarter with the home team holding the visiting Rattlers to an impressive five points in the quarter. This would to a 90-39 victory for the Queens, giving them a 2-2 record.
The players of the game went to Boulanger of the Rattlers and Szymanek from the Queens. Boulanger finished with 14 points and three rebounds. As for Szymanek, she completed the game with 21 points and seven rebounds.
Head Coach Avery Harrison said having Sandra Garcia-Bernal back for this afternoon's game was a big factor in this win against the Rattlers.
"She is always a big factor in the game because of her intensity and how hard she works on defence. She just brings us up another level. She is always a factor out there. We missed her last night."
Medicine Hat will be back in action next Friday at home when they take on The Kings University Eagles at 6 pm. For the Queens, they will battle it out with the University of Alberta-Augustana Vikings in Camrose on November 4 at 6 pm.