The Queens end their regular season on a 12-game winning streak, defeat the Thunder

Red Deer, February 17, 2023 – It was a battle between one of the best teams in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference, the Concordia University Thunder and the team that holds the longest winning streak this season, the Red Deer Polytechnic Queens.

The Queens got out to a fast start, scoring four points in the first 30 seconds and held their opponent to zero within the first three minutes. But that changed after a couple of back-to-back three-points by Thunders Madison Murdoch gave her team a two-point lead halfway through the first. But a late surge by the home team put them up 17-12 at the end of the first.

Three-pointers were raining down on the Thunder early on in the second quarter with the Queens going just about perfect from long range, forcing Concordia to call a timeout. But the Thunder would crawl back into it and find themselves down by just three with a score of 30-27. Murdoch led Concordia with 10 points and Queens guard Sandra Garcia-Bernal (Educational Assistant) led her team with 13 points at the half.

After a very slow last couple of minutes in the second, RDP came out on all cylinders to extend their lead early on in the third quarter. They would gain some momentum from this quick start and would not look back as they kept the Thunder from gaining any sort of energy in the quarter. The Queens would take a 54-41 lead into the fourth quarter as they looked to extend their winning streak to 12 games.

RDP would take the momentum they gained in the third quarter and continued to put pressure on the Thunder. The Queens were able to find holes in their opposition's defense to score points but then play tough defense to pick up multiple stops against the Thunder. The Queens would end their regular season on a 12-game winning streak with a final score of 76-56.

The players of the game went to Thunder's Madison Murdoch and Queens Amy Szymanek. Murdoch had 13 points and went three-for-five from long-range. Szymanek in her final regular season game in Red Deer put up 13 points.

These were the final regular season games for both teams. The Thunder clinched first place in the North Division and will look forward to their opponent which will be named after the play-in games next week. The Queens also clinched a spot at the championships and will await their opponent following the end of the play-in games which start next weekend. 

Lastly, at the end of last weekend's game against the Northwestern Polytechnic Wolves, the Queens shattered the record for most steals in a game with 43. The previous record was 39, broken by the St. Mary's University Lightning in 2014-2015.

Another record was broken tonight for the most steals in a single season. Entering the game, guard Sandra Garcia-Bernal had 114 steals and would finish with seven on the night to beat the previous record of 115 held by Marie Lupe of the Olds College Broncos in 2014-2015.