Basketball fever gripped Chemainus Secondary School last Thursday, with the Junior B Cougars hosting the Central Island boys tournament to wrap up the season.
The only downside was Shawnigan Lake School didn’t turn up for the four-team event due to an apparent mix-up. That resulted in a last-minute shake-up on the schedule for the remaining participants.
In the end, the Cougars lost two tough battles and Quamichan defeated Duncan Christian School 48-35 in the final.
With a little luck and some twists of fate, Chemainus could have very well won both its games. “In both games the boys played really hard,” observed coach Casey Parsons.
The opener against Quamichan started as a defensive struggle, with the Cougars trailing 6-1 after the first quarter.
Tournament jitters were apparent, but despite the lack of scoring, the defence excelled.
“Here’s the good news, you held them to six points,” Parsons told his players during the first-quarter break. “That’s 24 points a game. That’s awesome.”
Quamichan got untracked in the second quarter and the Cougars’ offense continued to struggle, resulting in a 24-5 deficit at halftime.
“Unfortunately versus Quamichan, we just couldn’t make anything in the first half,” noted Parsons. “We got good looks in the post and had drives to the hoop but nothing dropped.”
But the second half was like a completely different game.
“Shots started to fall late in the third and the boys’ pressure on defence created a bunch of turnovers,” Parsons pointed out. “Our guys finished the game on a 14-2 run, holding Quamichan to a single basket in the fourth. It was a game where you wish you had another eight minutes to go.”
It ended with Quamichan prevailing 36-27. The only points the Cougars gave up in the fourth quarter came on a Quamichan basket with just 33 seconds remaining or it would have been a complete shutout.
The defence, led by Koen de Wit and Cuyler Wilson, was relentless. The other players chipped in to make life miserable for Quamichan in the second half.
Kai Kasting scored three of the five Chemainus points in the first half and finished with seven points while Brayden Screaton added seven, Jordan Allinott five, de Wit four, and Wilson and Oakley Gauthier two apiece.
The Cougars wound up going right back on the floor again to play Duncan Christian School when Shawnigan Lake School didn’t show up. It was a slow start again for the team despite the feverish finish in the preceding game.
“It took the boys a bit to get the ball to good positions on the floor against their 1-3-1 zone, but when we did we got some lay-ups and high percentage shots,” Parsons indicated.
DCS led 29-18 at the half and the teams basically matched each other in the second half, with Chemainus holding a one-point edge.
Wilson and de Wit both found their groove in the third and fourth quarters, knocking down four three-pointers between them.
The lead got cut to six with about three minutes to go, but a couple of late baskets sealed a 54-42 victory for DCS.
The dynamic duo of de Wit and Wilson led the scoring with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Kasting and Gauthier both had six, Conner Kerr scored five and Gavin Robinson and Screaton added two apiece.
It was a great season for Chemainus basketball, with the development seen from the players pointing toward a bright future in their remaining high school years.