Rattlers Win Big in Home Opener

The Snake pit was full for the Home opener for the Rattlers Men. St. Mary's Lightning was in town to take on the Medicine Hat Rattlers. After trading first possession misses, Jon Sappelton opened the Scoring for the Rattlers. Jamel Slack followed up quickly with a steal and slammed it home. After another 3 from Slack the Rattlers were suddenly up 8-0. A lightning timeout came to try and settle the team, who came out of break with a deep 3. From here the game evened out with both teams playing tight Defense. With 4 minutes left a steal from Juscci Thompson assisted Arthur Rosa on a huge dunk and injected the gym with energy. The Lightning took another timely timeout and effectively stopped the momentum. The Rattlers never let St Mary's back into the game, but never seemed to pull away. Fouls were being called on both teams and saw both sides in Bonus early. This seemed to favor Medicine Hat who were hitting more shots from the stripe and the floor jumping out to a 24-11 lead at the end of the 1^st quarter.

The Second quarter started with Medicine Hat's Deangelo Ashley getting to the line again by winning the battle inside. This happened again with tight defense from the Rattlers, shutting down any Lightning attack. The lead opened up to 29-11 and the rattlers started to control the game even more. St. Mary's seemed to stumble every time they got something going. Medicine Hat Stalled halfway through the Quarter and seemed to start to let the Lightning back into the game at least by momentum. This continued until Rattler Brady Resch heated up and scored 6 points in 25 seconds. This seemed to breathe new life back into the Medicine Hat squad. With the Rattlers closing out the 1^st Half leading 49-28 at the break.

The third quarter started much how the second ended. Medicine Hat continued to score and extend the lead while the Lighting continued to hang around. While down by over 20, the Lightning continued to battle hard and fought to the whistle. The Medicine hat crew was too good not allowing St. Mary's to gain any ground despite making baskets. Upset after failing to covert three trips down the floor, the Rattlers bench called a timeout. After letting St Mary's back within 20 the Rattlers took another quick break calling time again. This didn't help immediately as the Lightning continued to close the gap. Not only up 14, the Rattlers started to find their groove thanks to Josh Magpantay hitting back to back 3's from the corner. The quarter ended with a Rattlers squad fading but still up 63-46.

The 4^th started looking more like the first two quarters. The Rattlers scored on their first two possessions but unlike the first the Lightning Responded. After missing their first two trips down the court, St Mary's found more of a groove converting on their next two chances. The game intensified with a few hard fouls from both sides and both teams trying to finish strong. The Rattlers continued to play like they were behind despite being up. Both teams unsatisfied with where they were in the game pressed harder late in the game.  Both teams played every second of the game with the score ending up 87-65 in favor of the Rattlers.