Trojans drop hard-fought decision to Rattlers
CALGARY, ALTA., (Nov. 17, 2018) — If anything, the SAIT Trojans women's basketball team now knows they can compete with the league's best.
Playing against the eighth-ranked team in Canada, the Trojans were edged 61-57 by the visiting Medicine Hat College Rattlers in their Saturday afternoon Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) game played at the Campus Centre.
"We're disappointed, but we're also going to learn from this," said Trojans forward Mel Thera (5th year, Winnipeg, Man., Emergency Medical Technology). "Med Hat is a great team, but we know we can compete with them now. There wasn't one person who didn't play a role today."
SAIT falls to 3-4 on the season. The Rattlers improve to 7-1.
After being down 18-11 after the first 10 minutes of play, the Trojans dominated the second quarter.
Skyler MacDonald (1st year, Vancouver, BC, Business Administration) scored seven of her team's 20 points to take a 31-27 lead into halftime.
She finished with 14 points, six rebounds and five assists. Thera added 10 points and 10 rebounds – giving her 10-plus rebounds in four straight games.
In that second quarter, the Trojans shot 44 per cent from the field, while their defense held Med Hat to just 28 per cent.
"We started to get our legs going a bit more, and once that energy was up, shots started to fall, our defense picked up. Things started to flow better," Thera said about the differences between the first and second quarters.
In the third, the Rattlers took back the lead by holding SAIT to just nine points in the quarter.
The fourth saw the team battle back and forth with the Trojans fought hard to take back the lead, but the Rattlers were able to keep the home team at arm's length.
Kiana Mintz led the Rattlers with a game-high 16 points.
The Trojans return to action next weekend with just one game – Friday night at Olds College.