NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Rattler forward Fred Kabore goes for an acrobatic layup in the first quarter of Medicine Hat College's 93-72 loss to the St. Mary's University Lightning.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Rattlers men’s basketball team is getting a hard welcome to the 2021 Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference season.
Medicine Hat College fell behind early and could not recover at home against St. Mary’s University Friday night, losing 93-72.
Rattlers head coach Richard Humphrey attributed the loss to the team consisting of a majority of rookies.
“We’re still young, the youngest team in this conference by a wide margin,” Humphrey said. “It was a five-point game at half time and then we started the half with two turnovers, five points given away in 10 seconds. That’s the ball game then.”
Medicine Hat out-rebounded St. Mary’s 25-20 and had one less turnover than the visiting team who had 10. But it was the Lightning who capitalized on those turnovers with 13 points off TO’s to Medicine Hat’s one. Humphrey says it comes down to when turnovers occur.
“We’re turning it over first so they can go do layups, they’re turning it over when it goes out of bounds trying to make a play out of it,” Humphrey said.
St. Marys had two players notch 20 points in the win, Caleb Jipp had 21 points and Averie Armbrister had 23.
Shooting was another thing holding the Rattlers back, as they made only 38.6 per cent of their field goals compared to the Lightning’s 54.4 per cent.
Medicine Hat’s top scorer was Jordan Biggar, who had 22 points on 8-for-14 shooting. He picked up four rebounds and made all five of his free throws in the loss.
Kieron Burgess, Medicine Hat’s leading scorer on the year, was held off the court until the second half of the game. When asked post-game about the first-half benching, Humphrey said it was, “Just some in house stuff… simple as that.”
The Rattlers hit the road Saturday for a rematch with St. Mary’s before the team shuts down for the Christmas break. Humphrey says they are slowly getting better as the season goes along.
“I believe we are going to be a good team down the road, but right now our inexperience shows,” Humphrey said. “We have 13 rookies and every day we are making rookie mistakes.”
Men’s volleyball
The Rattlers men’s volleyball team continued to struggle early in the ACAC season, falling to 0-5 with their fifth consecutive straight-sets loss, (25-16, 25-13, 25-19) against the Briercrest Clippers on the road Thursday.
Jovan Stepanovic led the rattlers with six kills in the loss, while Ty Moline set up 16 and dug out five.
The Clippers improved to 5-0 with the victory.
Women’s volleyball
The Rattlers women’s volleyball team also slipped to 0-5 Thursday, falling in four to the Clippers (25-19, 20-25, 25-18, 25-20).
Dryden Gris led Medicine Hat’s offence with six kills in the loss, while Olivia Jacobson assisted on 12 and Hailey Adams dug out 11.
Briercrest climbed to 4-1 with the win.
MHC’s volleyball teams return home to host the Clippers in a pair of rematches on Saturday at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
