It was an up and down week for the Ballenas Whalers senior boys basketball team, as they played four games in the span of five days, capping it off with a tilt against the Wellington Wildcats (Nanaimo) at home on Tuesday night.
In a close, back and forth game, the Whalers came up short in the end to the Wildcats, who won 87-76.
Senior Aaron Paetkau was a force on the floor, scoring at will and grabbing plenty of rebounds as well. It wasn’t enough for the Whalers, however, who were leading heading into the fourth quarter but fell short in the end.
“We ran into foul trouble to finish it off,” head coach Kevin McMillen said. “It’s tough when three of our five starters are in foul trouble heading into the final frame, with two of them fouling out. Aaron set the pace on offence for us but having him and Liviano foul out was tough on us.”
Paetkau and the Whalers started their busy week of basketball off with a win at the Mark Isfeld Ice (Courtenay) tournament over a tough Parkland (Victoria) team.
Paetkau led the way in the win for the Whalers with 40 points and 20 rebounds in the 82-72 victory.
The Whalers matched up well against both Brentwood College and Shawnigan Lake in their next two games but couldn’t come away with a win in either game.
“We had a good start on Friday,” McMillen said. “We were up quite a bit in the fourth and Parkland went on a run to tie it up, so we were off to overtime. We went on a nice run in overtime to come away with the win.”
“We were able to slow the ball down and came out the winners. So that felt good to start the tournament on the right foot.”
“The rest of the tournament was a little different; we had a hard time figuring out how to play the way we wanted to. We got caught up with the way other teams were playing against us and strayed from our game plan,” McMillen said.
“It’s tough when that happens but it’s something that we have to learn from and try to change going forward. We can’t let other teams dictate the way we play, we have to set the tone to give ourselves the best chance to win.”
With that tournament behind them, the Whalers will now look to find their identity in the cross-town rivalry game against the Kwalikum Kondors tonight (Dec. 17) at Ballenas, tipoff slated for
7 p.m.
“That’s going to be a fun game,” McMillen said. “It’s always great whenever Kwalikum and Ballenas get together for games, be it on the soccer field, volleyball or basketball court.”
“These kids know each other very well so there’s no hiding anything when it comes to the play on the court. We know what they’re all about and they know what we’re about too.”
“It has all the makings of a great game and I’m sure that everyone in attendance will be treated to a good one.”
