Harneet Sidhu (#14) drives to the hoop on Saturday versus Briercrest College. (6 Hearts Creative Studios/Red Deer College/Stephen Sebree)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

finding their way

Queens basketball struggle with consistency in second straight loss to Briercrest

Nov 23, 2019 | 5:42 PM

It’s been an up and down season for RDC Queens basketball squad, with the latest down coming on Saturday.

For the second day in a row, the team lost to the Briercrest College Clippers, this time 93-75. On Friday, it was a much closer 76-72 defeat.

Now, the Queens sport a 4-4 record and sit fourth in the south division about a quarter of the way through the ACAC season.

Head Coach Mandy Botham said post-game the team is struggling with consistency.

“I don’t like to make excuses for them at all. I thought we looked slow today, a little bit tired, and maybe the tight turnaround (was a factor), but Briercrest had those same conditions,” said Botham. “We had a ton of turnovers and a lot of them were unforced. We struggle to balance our intensity with the composure to take care of the ball, and that’s something we’ve been working on all season and we need to do a better job of it.”

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RDC found themselves down 43-33 at the half on Saturday, and the deficit only grew larger after the break. In the third quarter, the Clippers pulled away, extending their lead to 19 points.

The Queens won the fourth 24-23, but it was too little, too late.

“We’re so up and down with our effort and our pace, and we tend to get frustrated easily when things don’t go our way,” Botham continued. “I think that’s just a maturity thing we need to work on as we play more games.”

Briercrest’s Angenay Williams, a former forward at UPEI (U Sports), was locked in on Saturday, draining a game-high 39 points. She was 4/14 from beyond the arc, and 12/29 from field goal range while making 11 of 12 free throw attempts.

RDC’s player of the game was Valentina Rincon who came in off the bench to score 12 points. Harneet Sidhu had a team-high 17 points.

Next up for the Queens basketball team is a pair of away games versus Medicine Hat College on Nov. 29 and 30. They won’t play again after that until January.