After capturing their second straight regular season title, the Ballenas Whalers senior girls basketball team earned their second straight North Island championship tournament title, beating the Isfeld Ice (Comox) this past weekend.
The Whalers girls jumped out to a big first quarter lead, but saw that lead evaporate in the second quarter, thanks to some timely shooting from the Ice.
Coming out in the second half, the Whalers erased a slow second quarter from their mind, made some adjustments and restored a 20-point lead over the Ice, cruising to their second straight North Island Championship with an 82-58 victory.
“We played a real good game,” head coach Daryl Britz said. “Things kind of fell apart on us in the second quarter and their star player got hot at the right time and brought them back.”
“We made some adjustments heading in to the third quarter though and managed to put that to a stop before they were able to get any closer.”
Grade 12 Chelsea Hoey had herself an excellent final game, putting up a triple-double on the Isfeld Ice to the tune of 29 points, 25 rebounds and 12 assists. Abby Lefaux pitched in with 18 points as well.
“We are happy with that win and getting the number one seed again,” Britz said. “But we know that the games we want to win are coming up this week at the Island tournament.”
“We’re on the same side of the draw as Brentwood, Wellington and Pacific Christian (Victoria), so hopefully all goes well for us and we’ll finally get over that hump and make the provincials.”