RDP Queens Basketball Guard Sophie Melin earns player of the game for her team with 20 points against the Dawson College Blues at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Women’s Basketball National Championship in Hamilton, Ontario. (RDP Athletics/@SWIREPHOTOS)

By rdnewsNOW Staff

Move to bronze medal bracket

RDP Queens Basketball 15-game winning streak ends in loss to Dawson College Blues at nationals

Mar 16, 2023 | 3:20 PM

The Red Deer Polytechnic (RDP) Queens’ 15-game winning streak came to an end at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Women’s Basketball National Championship in Hamilton, Ontario.

RDP Athletics say the Queens got into some turnover and scoring troubles early on, but they did not let those struggles get to them as they continued to fight right until the end.

Ultimately, they were defeated in the quarterfinals by the Dawson College Blues out of Westmount, Quebec and will now move over to the bronze medal side of the bracket.

The Queens Basketball team gave up nine straight points to start the game but forward Janai Hubert (Bachelor of Kinesiology) would get her team on the board with a jumper from the free-throw line halfway through the quarter. However, nearing the final seconds of the opening frame, the Queens slowly crawled back and found themselves down 18-12 at the end of the quarter. After a 7-3 run for the Blues, the Queens found themselves down by double-digits for the first time in the game which led to a timeout called by Head Coach Avery Harrison. The Queens were able to gain a few points on Dawson College but let it slip in the final few minutes of the half, finding themselves down 46-22.

The Blues dominated the floor in the second quarter as they scored 28 points to the Queens’ 10. Guard Sophie Melin (Bachelor of Arts in Psychology) led her team in the half with nine points. Melin would knock down a triple to open the scoring in the second half.

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It was a much better start to the third quarter then the first as the Queens went on a 7-0 run in the first three minutes of the half. With under three minutes to go into the quarter, the Queens got their mojo back as guard Lauren France (Bachelor of Arts in Psychology) and Melin hit back-to-back threes and found themselves just down by 12 as they headed into the final quarter of the match.

To start the fourth, the Queens would hit a two-point jumper to come within 10. Then, another three-pointer following a timeout by Melin found themselves down by just nine. This is the closest RDP would get to the Blues as Dawson would turn on the jets in the final minute and soar to a 68-51 win.

Melin was named the player of the match for the Queens as she finished with 20 points, 18 of them coming from three-pointers. The next top scorer on the Polytechnic was centre Peighton Melton (Open Studies) with eight. Guard Sandra Garcia-Bernal picked up 13 rebounds as she played in all 40 minutes of the game.

RD{P Queens basketball team at awards banquet. (RDP Athletics)

The Queens’ next game will be at 1 p.m. MT Thursday in the bronze quarter final. Their opponent is to be determined; it will either be the host Mohawk College Mountaineers or the Vancouver Island University Mariners who were the champions out of the PACWEST conference in British Columbia.