Queens Basketball Championship Team. (supplied)

By RDP Athletics

Off To Nationals

RDP Queens ACAC women’s Basketball Champions

Mar 6, 2023 | 2:23 PM

The Red Deer Polytechnic Queens picked up their first gold medal in women’s basketball in 31 years as they defeated the University of Alberta-Augustana Vikings 69-44 in the ACAC Championship on Saturday.

As a result, the Queens Basketball program has now won six ACAC titles. (1974-1976, 1984, 1992, 2023)

A lot of basketball has been played since these two teams faced off back in November. The Vikings would defeat the Queens 71-68 in what was a nail-biting game.

Leading up to this latest contest however, the Queens defeated the Keyano College Huskies in the quarterfinals and the Briercrest College Clippers in the semi-finals. The Vikings defeated the host Lethbridge College Kodiaks in their first match and would follow it up with a win against the St. Mary’s University Lightning to make the finals a battle of the number two-seeded teams in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC).

Red Deer started the gold medal game out on fire as they held the Vikings pointless for the first five minutes and scored nine straight points. Augustana would finally end their point drought with a deep-two-pointer. It was quite an intense first quarter with both fanbases making their presence known inside the Val Matteotti Gymnasium. The Queens would earn themselves an early 17-7 lead as they went into the second quarter.

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The Vikings would take an early timeout in the second quarter as they were down 19-7 with seven minutes left to go in the half but have not scored in six minutes. Centre Peighton Melton (General Studies) was having an impressive game under the net in the early goings picking up six points and five rebounds.

Once again after the Queens jumped out to a big lead, the Vikings called a timeout as they were looking quite startled on the court and were not playing in tune. The Queens would hold a 31-17 lead as went into the second half. Guard Sandra Garcia-Bernal (Educational Assistant) would lead her team with nine points but guard Sophie Melin (Bachelor of Arts in Psychology) was right behind the Spanish student-athlete with eight points. Melton had seven rebounds in the first half to lead her team in the category.

In the early goings of the quarter, both teams came out of the gate with a lot of energy. With under five minutes to go, this championship turned into quite the battle with the Vikings and Queens going back and forth down the court, putting their best effort forward with a championship banner on the line. The Polytechnic would take a 44-34 lead into the final quarter with 10 minutes to play.

In the opening two minutes of the quarter, the Vikings and Queens would go tit-for-tat with each other and match whatever the other team would score to keep it a ten-point game. Augustana would call a timeout as they fell behind by 13 after the Queens came up with multiple stops in their defensive zone and transitioned this into the offensive game. With some huge steals in their own zone, the Queens would jump out to an impressive 20-point lead with four minutes left to go and would take home the banner to Red Deer with a final score of 69-44.

Centre Peighton Melton took home the player of the game award with 13 points, eight rebounds and a perfect three-for-three from the field.

Peighton Melton in the paint vs the Vikings. (Supplied)

After Melton accepted her award, guard Heena Sidhu was named to the All-Tournament team and guard Sandra Garcia-Bernal earned herself the Most Valuable Player at the championship.

This is the first time in 31 years the Queens were crowned champions. Assistant coach Nadine Cunningham played for Red Deer the last time they won the championship and now has a gold medal as a coach.

Both these teams will represent the ACAC at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Women’s Basketball National Championship hosted by Mohawk College in Hamilton, ON from March 15-18.