The streak is over with the Queens falling to the Dawson Blues in the national quarterfinals

Hamilton, ON, March 15, 2023 – It just was not the Red Deer Polytechnic Queens night in Hamilton at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Women's Basketball National Championship as their 15-game winning streak came to an end. The Queens got into some turnover and scoring troubles early on, but they did not let those struggles get to them as they continued to fight right until the end. Ultimately, they were defeated in the quarterfinals by the Dawson College Blues out of Westmount, QC and will now move over to the bronze medal side of the bracket.

It was a bit of a slow and rough start for the Queens Basketball team as they gave up nine straight points to start the game, but forward Janai Hubert (Bachelor of Kinesiology) would finally get her team on the board with a jumper from the free-throw line halfway through the quarter. But nearing the final seconds of the opening frame, the Queens slowly crawled back and found themselves down 18-12 at the end of the quarter.

But after a 7-3 run for the Blues, the Queens found themselves down by double-digits for the first time in the game, leading to a timeout called by Head Coach Avery Harrison. This did not change much of the game as the Queens were able to gain a few points on Dawson College but they let that slip away in the final few minutes of the half and found themselves down 46-22. The Blues dominated the floor in the second quarter, scoring 28 points to the Queens 10. Guard Sophie Melin (Bachelor of Arts in Psychology) led her team in the half with nine points.

Melin would knock down a triple to open the scoring in the second half. It was a much better start to the third quarter than the first as the Queens went on a 7-0 run in the first three minutes of the half.  With under three minutes to go into the quarter, the Polytechnic got their mojo back as guard Lauren France (Bachelor of Arts in Psychology) and Melin hit back-to-back threes and found themselves just down by 12 as they head into the final quarter of the match.

To start the fourth, the Queens would hit a two-point jumper to come within 10 but just could not capitalize on multiple chances to find themselves down by single digits. But another three-pointer following a timeout by Melin found themselves down by just nine. This is the closest RDP would get to the Blues as Dawson would turn on the jets in the final minute and soar to a 68-51 win. Melin was named the player of the match for the Queens as she finished with 20 points, 18 of them coming from three-pointers. The next top scorer on the Polytechnic was centre Peighton Melton (Open Studies) with eight. Guard Sandra Garcia-Bernal picked up 13 rebounds as she played in all 40 minutes of the game.

The Queens next game will be at 1 pm MST tomorrow in the bronze quarter-final. Their opponent will be the host Mohawk College Mountaineers.