Broncos win first of weekend series over Briercrest

By Jacob Mclarney

The Olds College Broncos women's basketball team defeated the Briercrest College Clippers 102-68 in the Olds College Staff and Faculty Appreciation Game Friday, January 31, 2020.

The teams honored the passing of Kobe Bryant to start the game with eight second back court and 24 second shot clock violations.

The Broncos started the game with a ten point run largely off the back of Alli Taylor's six points. Briercrest responded with a 6-0 run of their own with Angenay Williams scoring all three baskets. Brittney Thibeaux ended the Briercrest run and an Alice-Fay Pitts steal and score built the Broncos lead to 14-6. Briercrest was playing good no-nonsense defense but missing a few open shots and the Broncos held a two or three basket lead for most of the first quarter. Briercrest relied mostly on pushing the floor either to get past the press or to try and get an easy basket but the Broncos were able to get back in time for the majority of the quarter. While the Broncos were passing the ball around and waiting for an opening,
Briercrest was not going to allow anything easy and relied mostly on their outside shot to get many of their points. It wasn't until two minutes left that the Broncos began to take over. The Broncos ended the first quarter leading 21-14.

With the Broncos leading going into the second quarter they would look to begin to run away with the game sooner rather than later, but Briercrest's athleticism, work ethic, and teamwork had helped them stay in the game as contenders thus far. A few minutes into the second quarter the Broncos started to push a little harder, making cuts to the basket, making their outside shots, and quick transition off of turnovers. Whenever Briercrest would start to make multiple baskets in a row, the Broncos would answer back immediately. The Broncos extended their lead to 56-31 at halftime.

To begin the second half both teams started off strong playing similar styles to the first two quarters. But, with very few bench players being subbed in, fatigue started to set in with fewer fastbreaks and more outside shots. With Broncos being up 80-46 with three minutes left it seemed that the game had already been decided, but neither team seemed to notice or care. Most notably number Briercrest's Angenay Williams with 22 points to end the quarter had been the driving force of their offense, both with her strong inside game, outside shots, and drawing fouls from her drives to the net. The Broncos were able to extend their lead slightly to 82-52 after three quarters.

Briercrest started to pick up their game all-around during the fourth quarter despite neither team willing to change their top seven. A lot less outside shots from both teams and mostly looking to find the open player on the break or work the ball inside for an easier basket. Due to this and possibly frustration, both teams started to get into foul trouble with Briercrest already giving up their five fouls before the halfway mark. Broncos won the game 102-68.

Player of the game for Briercrest was Angenay Williams with a game high 27 points and four assists and the Pit Barbecue Player of the Game for the Broncos was Brandi Thibeaux who played every minute of the game and had 23 points, nine assists and a game high nine steals.

The Broncos led the game in rebounds 36-31 (23 of which were offensive), assists 31-13, steals 28-8 and blocks 2-0. Game leaders for the Broncos were Brittney Thibeaux with a game high 27 points, Alice-Fay Pitts with a game high 12 assists to go with a block, and Alli Taylor with a game high 10 rebounds.

The Broncos host Briercrest College again Saturday, February 1.

To learn more about Olds College, the Olds College Broncos and the basketball teams go to gobroncos.ca; like the Face book page and follow @OldsBroncos on Twitter and Instagram