Tyson Taylor
sports@pqbnews.com
The Senior Girls from Kwalikum and Ballenas high schools took to the hardwood at KSS Tuesday and the visiting Whaler girls managed to even up the odds in the cross-town rivalry.
Grade 11 Chelsea Hoey paced the Whalers with 24 points on the night and was tough for the Kondors to contain down low. Brittany Britz, Grade 12, chipped in seven points as the Whalers beat KSS 51-21.
Both Michelle Waters and Nikki Krishka had five points a piece for the Kondors, who had a tough time containing the fast break offense of Ballenas right from the start of the game.
The two teams battled hard back and forth but the Whalers were able to capitalize on their height inside, giving the Kondors fits on the night. According to coach Daryl Britz, the Whalers came prepared to compete hard on defense.
“We executed pretty good on defense, our man to man was pretty good and we had a game plan set up to stop their key players. It’s nice to see the girls on both sides playing really hard, in a good spirited cross town game. It’s always great to see two teams playing hard, we just had the fortune of coming away with the win that night,” Britz said.
Ballenas got out to a quick start in the first quarter, capitalizing on some turnovers and a good fast break offense to counter the KSS defense, allowing the Whalers to take a 14 – 7 lead after the first quarter. The Kondors got things going to start off the second quarter as Nikki Krishka drained a three pointer to cut the Whaler lead down to four points, but that seemed to spark the Whalers, who went on a 10–0 run to stretch their lead to 14. The second quarter ended with Ballenas leading 28–14.
“I thought that things went well for us defensively. Ballenas is a great team and for us to be able to hold them under 60 points was good for us, especially considering we gave them a few more chances than they should have had,” coach Jesse Witte said.
Ballenas ended up stretching their lead in the third quarter as they led KSS 45–18. The fourth quarter wasn’t much better for the Kondors as they wound up dropping the game 51-21.
Ballenas has now won five games on the season and is hosting Mark Isfeld out of Courtenay Jan. 7. It’s going to be a tough test for the Whalers as Isfeld is one of the three teams that Ballenas is gearing up for.
Both the senior girls and boys teams from KSS are headed to San Diego for a week long trip where they will take part in a tournament, enjoy an NBA and NFL game and get to check out Universal Studios before coming back and getting right back to their season.