Basketball league play started up again on Tuesday, and now several local teams bounce toward tournament play.
Wellington Secondary School hosts its major annual tournament, Superball, starting Thursday (Jan. 8).
The Wellington Wildcats senior AA girls got warmed up with a 53-14 home win over the Barsby Blazers on Tuesday. Olivia Mjaaland scored 32 points and Mccalli Franklin added eight for the ’Cats.
“It was good getting the rust off in the first game to get ready for Superball,” said Franklin.
The Wellington girls have won their tournament three straight years and look forward to giving it their best effort again in 2015.
“We’ve been looking forward to it since the beginning of the year and it’s what we’ve played up to pretty much the entire year,” said Sara Chrystal, another Wildcats player. “The whole school’s looking forward to it.”
Wellington’s boys, meanwhile, will be looking to wrest back the tournament title after Dover Bay won the boys’ draw last year.
“You get to play in front of all your peers, so it’s really exciting to play in front of everybody and hopefully you get that win,” said Hayden Jeffrey, Wildcats point guard.
The ’Cats boys tip off the tourney Thursday at 3 p.m. against Carihi, followed by the Wellington girls, who play Nanaimo District at 4:30 p.m. Dover Bay’s boys play Barsby at 6 p.m. and then the Dover Bay girls take on Carihi at 7:30 p.m.
On Friday, the Wellington girls play Stelly's at 8:15 a.m., followed by the Welly boys against D.W. Poppy at 9:50 a.m., then Barsby's boys against Kwalikum at 11:20 a.m. and the Dover girls versus Poppy at 12:50 p.m. The NDSS girls play Stelly's at 3:50 p.m., then Dover boys against Kwalikum at 5:20 p.m.
The girls' final is Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and the boys' final is Saturday at 4 p.m.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com