NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Kieron Burgess embraces contact as he goes for a layup in the first quarter of the Rattlers 83-75 loss Friday night to Red Deer Polytechnic.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com
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The Medicine Hat College Rattlers men’s basketball team nearly came all the way back Friday night.
The Rattlers outscored Red Deer Polytechnic 32-21 in the fourth quarter but could not complete the comeback, falling 83-75 at home.
Rattlers head coach Richard Humphrey says besides the fact they only played hard for 20 minutes, they played well.
After three quarters the Polytechnic were leading the Rattlers 62-43 before their run in the fourth. Humphrey says his guys started listening after the third and cited his excess youth for the inconsistency.
“We have 13 rookies and we are still learning,” Humphrey said. “We are behind everyone else in the league as far as our progression because we have so many news faces. It’s justgoing to take some time.”
The Rattlers were led on the court by Kieron Burgess, who shot 7 of 16 for 19 points and 17 rebounds. Peter Adonri added some offence coming off the bench, dropping 11 points while shooting 4 of 8 in only 15 minutes of action.
Red Deer’s Eduard Crespo was the game’s top scorer with 20 points while shooting 5 of 12 and picking up six assists.
Medicine Hat put themselves behind the 8-ball with 20 turnovers in the game, which was only five more than Red Deer, but the Polytechnic capitalized on the possession changes and scored 28 points on turnovers to the Rattlers’ 15.
One of the positive signs for the team this season has been rebounding, and that continued Friday,picking up 44 boards to Red Deer’s 31.
Humphrey says the effort the Rattlers showed in the fourth quarter was encouraging for the rest of the season.
“We’ve shown glimpses all year, in and out of every game where we are that good, now we just have to put it together for 40 minutes,” Humphrey said.
In large part to their comeback attempt, the Rattlers put up more field goals than the Polytechnic, who made a better percentage, 45.6% to Medicine Hat’s 40%.
The Rattlers mens hit the road Sunday for a rematch with Red Deer, which gets underway at 2 p.m.
Medicine Hat College Rattlers women’s team were also taking on Red Deer Friday night but that game was not completed by time of press. They hit the road Sunday to Red Deer with their game starting at 4 p.m.
