Queens defending against the Dawson Blues. (RDP Athletics)

By Red Deer Polytechnic Athletics

Fourth Place Finish

Queens lose to Dawson Blues in CCAA national championship bronze medal game

Mar 20, 2023 | 11:07 AM

In a rematch of the quarterfinal last Wednesday, the Dawson College Blues defeated the Red Deer Polytechnic Queens for the second time in three days.

With this loss, the Queens finished fourth at the 2023 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Women’s Basketball National Championship over the weekend.

The Blues would defeat the Queens 68-51 to move on to the gold medal side of the bracket but Dawson College lost 77-69 to the Vancouver Island University Mariners on Saturday in the semi-final which gave the Queens a chance to avenge their early tournament loss. This was not the case in the end.

It was a slow start for the Queens like it was on Wednesday evening as they fell behind early and just could not get their offense rolling. The Blues on the other hand had their offense working smoothly as they found themselves up 21-11 with two minutes left to go in the first quarter. They were able to move the ball around fast and efficiently which led to open lanes for them to drive into the paint and finish the layup or a wide-open shot. Dawson College would finish the quarter up 29-13 over the Red Deer Polytechnic Queens.

Guard and forward Amy Szymanek (Bachelor of Education) started the second quarter with a three-point play as she hit the layup and was fouled on the play which gave her the chance to drain the foul shot. She hit the foul shot for one point and gave the Queens three points in the first 10 seconds of the quarter.

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But following this play, the Blues would score nine straight on RDP which led to another timeout called by Head Coach Avery Harrison. The difference in this first half was the Queens were just getting outworked under the net on both sides of the court. The Blues were picking up most of the rebounds on offense and defense. RDP took advantage of the foul trouble that Dawson got into halfway through the quarter and gave the Queens some life as they finished off the half down 53-36.

The Queens would put up quite the fight in the third quarter like they did in their last game against the Blues and found themselves only down by 11. But Dawson surged in the late moments of the quarter and held the Queens outside the arch and the paint, forcing them to take tough shots. RDP would have a steep hill to climb if they wanted any chance to take home a bronze medal as they were down 74-53 at the end of the third.

Starting the final quarter of their tournament, the Queens were able to play some tough, tight defense as they held the Blues off the scoreboard for three consecutive minutes. But the offense for the Queens was not efficient as they just scored four in three minutes but that was enough for the Blues head coach to call a timeout for his team. Regardless of the score, the Polytechnic would continue to fight and not give up which led to them climbing their way back into the game as they were down by just 14 at one point in the fourth. This was not enough as the Queens would finish fourth in the tournament as they were defeated 87-80 by the Blues.

Guard Sophie Melin (Bachelor of Arts in Psychology) led the Queens with 25 points in the 38 minutes she played. She only sat for two minutes. The only other Queens that hit double digits in points was Szymanek with 13 and guard Heena Sidhu (Bachelor of Arts in Political Sciences) with 12 in their last game of the championship. Amy Szymanek would pick up the player of the game award.

Amy Szymanek, Player Of The Game. (RDP Athletics)

This was the final game of the Queens season and they will look to improve on it next year in the 2023/2024 campaign.