Kings battle to a victory against the Clippers, now .500 on the year
Red Deer, January 14, 2023 - Less then 24 hours later, the Red Deer Polytechnic Kings were back at it against the Briercrest College Clippers for the second of two matches this weekend against one another with the Kings taking the Friday night match 104-73.
It was a very tight first quarter between these two teams in this afternoon edition of the Clippers and the Kings. Briercrest was looking to avenge last nights loss and slow down an offense that hit triple digits last night. For the Kings, they were looking to start a three-game winning streak and become .500 for the first time this season after four consecutive losses to start the 2022-2023 year. At the end of the first quarter the Kings had a slight 28-21 lead with Cole Wicker (Bachelor of Education) leading the way with nine points and Clippers Matthew Bryant (Business Administration) with six buckets of his own.
With a very offensive first 10 minutes for both teams, the game got really defensive for most of the second and slowed the game right down. With seconds to go, centre Jose Mauro (Academic Upgrading) sent the crowd into a frenzy as he finished a two-handed dunk but, on the play, he was assessed an offensive foul for charging. The Kings would finish the half with a 46-37 lead over the Clippers. Bryant and his teammate Riley Seaborn (Business Administration) were tied for the team lead with eight points each. Kings' Wicker continued to lead the team in points as he extended his total with 14 before the half.
Clippers guard Brolin Simes (Business Administration) got the women's Clippers cheering loud in the stands after he juked out the Kings defender and then stepped back to hit a three-pointer to cut the Kings lead to 10. But the Clippers got into some foul trouble late in the third quarter which meant free throws any time a foul was taken by Saskatchewan-team. Before a timeout called by the Clippers, the Kings extended their lead to 18 in the third after a basket was scored off a turnover off an inbound play.
In the fourth quarter, the Clippers showed no quit for the second straight night in a row even though they were down but tonight was a much closer affair as they were able to hold the Kings to under 100 points. Ultimately, they would fall to Red Deer for a second day in a row with a score of 82-68.
The player of the game for the Clippers went to Brolin Simes, who finished with 13 points with 12 of those coming off three-pointers. Kings guard Eduardo Crespo (Academic Upgrading) was named the player of the game for his team with 15 points and seven rebounds.
The Kings will be back in action next week Friday with a game in Calgary against the Ambrose Lions at 8 pm. For the Clippers, they will play host to the Medicine Hat College Rattlers next Friday at 8 pm as well.