NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat College Rattler Katelyn Rozdeba goes for a layup in the late stages of the Rattlers 75-66 loss to Briercrest College Thursday night.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat College Rattler’s women’s basketball team went up early but fell 75-66 to Briercrest College Thursday night.
The Rattlers led 41-29 at the half before being outscored 46-25 in the last two quarters to take the loss.
Head coach Clayton Nielson said Briercrest just came out faster and shot better behind the line in the second half.
“No. 9 was just really fast and we didn’t have a way of controlling her the way we wanted to controlling her, that would have been the ‘TSN turning point’ for us,” Nielson said. “…They shoot a lot of threes, we shot the same but I thought there were more impactful and that’s what hurt us a little bit.”
Briercrest No. 9, Dori Sunderland was second on the Clippers in scoring with 15 points.
With the loss, the Rattlers record sits at 6-7 as they comfortably hold onto fourth place in the South Division.
The Rattlers were led offensively by senior Katelyn Rozdeba, who had 19 points and 15 rebounds in 35 minutes of play. Her 15 rebounds led all players in the game as she sits atop the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference in rebounds per game with 14.5 and points per game with 20.2.
Nielson said he thinks Rozdeba is the best player in the South and added they could have relied on her even more.
“She had 19 points, 15 rebounds and normally you’d think, ‘that’s pretty good,’ but she had opportunities to do more,” Nielson said. “We have to find a better way to getting her the opportunities to carry us a little more. I think she could have had 35 tonight. She’s dynamic, she can handle the ball, drive, she can shoot it. I think the way she goes we go and I think we need to do a better job of understanding that.”
Abygail LaRochelle and Jasmine Gardiner also provided offence for the Rattlers in the loss as they both picked up 13 points.
Despite the big effort from Rozdeba on the boards, the Rattlers were out rebounded 44-33 by the Clippers. Nielson said that was just one of the ways they hurt themselves in the loss, and it’s something they need to know and change ahead of Saturday’s rematch.
The Rattlers women’s basketball team is back in action Saturday when they head to Briercrest for a 6 p.m. game with the Clippers.
The Rattlers men’s basketball team took on Briercrest immediately after the women’s game Thursday night, but that game was not finished by press time.
They hit the road for Briercrest Saturday as well.
