The Chemainus junior boys Cougars had a great first basketball game going, but ran out of gas.
The Cougars held the lead on St. John’s Academy last Thursday at Chemainus Secondary School for much of the game, but ended up losing 53-46.
The team is playing in the junior boys B league this season, coach Casey Parsons explained.
“Our group is fairly new to basketball and is made up of mostly Grade 8s and 9s, but they love the game, and you can always find them shooting in the gym before and after school which is a very cool thing to see.”
The Cougars trailed 12-11 after the first quarter, but then picked it up to take a 28-23 lead into halftime. They were still ahead 40-36 in the last minute of the third quarter when St. John’s managed a 17-6 run from there for the win.
“I thought we played well for our first game of the season,” noted Parsons, a former star during his playing days with the Cowichan Thunderbirds senior boys in Duncan. “Our goal was to check a couple of boxes, like pushing the ball in transition and to not get down on each other if we made some mistakes, which I thought we did a nice job of.”
After the players got worn down, Parsons pointed out they had a hard time securing some key rebounds.
Titus Kennedy was the leading scorer for Chemainus with 24 points. Jordan Allinott added 10 points, including a three-pointer that he dialed in nicely toward the basket from long range in the second quarter.
The team faces Shawnigan Lake School in another game at Chemainus Secondary School Thursday, Dec. 8 at 3:45 p.m.
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don.bodger@chemainusvalleycourier.ca
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