Clippers climb past Broncos

The Briercrest College Clippers found their footing in the second half, coming back to beat the Olds College Broncos 80-73 at the Ralph Klein Centre on Friday.

Brooklyn Martens turned in a dominant performance for the Clippers (8-7) with 22 points and 12 rebounds to earn Player of the Game for Briercrest, while Amber Fichtner added 17 points and 16 rebounds to help Briercrest outrebound Olds College 61-43.

For the Broncos (7-8), Blu Rose led the way with 21 points, seven rebounds, five steals and three assists, while Rio Yamazaki and Player of the Game Caitlin Paul added 19 points each.

After the Broncos jumped out to an early 7-2 lead, Briercrest responded by going up 18-14, with Sydney Latrace adding six points off the bench in that time. However, the Broncos would rebound to take a narrow 21-20 lead through the opening 10 minutes.

The second quarter was relatively even on both sides, though the Broncos led the entire way to take a 38-33 advantage into halftime.

Olds College extended its lead to nine early in the third, but Briercrest pushed back, using a 7-0 run to pull back even en route to pushing out a 60-58 lead heading to the fourth, where an early 6-0 run put them ahead to stay as the Broncos would get no closer than three points.

Briercrest and Olds College will contest the back half of the doubleheader tomorrow at 1 p.m. in Olds.