The Kwalikum Secondary senior boys basketball team were back in the swing of things off the Christmas break, dispatching the Woodlands Eagles 68-45.
Led by senior Wylder Carson-Austin, who put up 19 points, the Kondors took their six-point lead at the half and blew things open in the second half, outscoring Woodlands 41-27.
“We came out a little rusty, but that’s expected coming out of the Christmas break,” coach Barry Bevilacqua said after the game. “We had a few problems executing at certain points in the game but all in all, we held our own out there and came away with a good league win.”
Senior Ryan Becker had 14 points, while Grade 11 Lucas Sposato added 15 points. Becker and the Kondors did a good job containing the Eagles best player, Zack McKay (six points).
“We played aggressive, which is one of our strong points,” Bevilacqua said. “Holding him off the score sheet like that takes a lot away from their team. We had a good talk at half about the game up to that point and we came out for the second half and played much better.”
The Kondors now improve to 4-0 in league play and continue to get better with each passing game. It’s something that Bevilacqua knows has a chance to continue to get better as the team continues to gel.
“This is one of the better teams I’ve seen in my time here at KSS,” Bevilacqua said. “We have 11 guys that can play, we’re a deep team. We can run the ball, we can slow it down, we’ve got some big bodies and we get after it out there. This is a team that’s played very well together so far this year and our record indicates that.”
It’s going to be busy for the next two weeks for the Kondors, slated to play nine games over the next 14 days. Starting with a tournament at Wellington (Nanaimo) this weekend, the Kondors will have a chance to test themselves against some of the bigger schools in B.C.
“It will be a good challenge for us,” Bevilacqua said. “Being a double A school, we’re smaller than a lot of the teams coming to these tournaments so it’s going to be a nice test for us. We’re looking forward to seeing what we can do out there against some of these teams and hopefully we can bring some of that back with us to utilize in our league games.”
The Kondors will be in action against the Barsby Bulldogs (Nanaimo) for their next league game, Jan. 13 in Nanaimo. From there, it’s off to Courtenay for a tournament hosted by G.P. Vanier. “We’ve got some work to do between now and the end of the season,” Bevilacqua said. “There’s always room for improvement and we’re going to continue to look to improve all areas of our game.”
