The Wolverines were pretty hungry during last week’s home senior boys basketball game versus the Saanich Stelly’s — finishing off with a score of 69 - 38.
As soon as the first sneaker touched the gym floor at Edward Milne community school last Tuesday night, the game was already in full-swing; Lucas Blatchford landed 18 shots through the Stelly’s hoop, followed by Jonah Phillip with 14, and Charlie Richardson with 12.
Before the Stelly’s, the EMCS Wolverines finished 3rd in the Boys South Island AAA basketball game. This was despite being a big guy short; a challenge that coach Trevor Bligh says his team adapted from and continued pushing through.
“We struggled for a bit, there were a couple of offsets, but the guys are back, we’re peaking at the right time, this is what we wanna do when we have the playoffs,” he said, noting that the team had to change the way it defended.
“We simply didn’t have a shot blocker in front of the rim to deter people, but we made do,” he said. “I’m very impressed with the way the guys bounced back - they changed their game a little bit and were still able to find success.”
EMCS met the Stelly’s on the playing field several times this year; first game the Wolverines won by 41, second game was in Port Alberni with five guys. At that point, they were down 24 points and won by 1, then won a couple of weeks ago by 27.
“We gotta play hard, gotta play smart, and if we do so we’ll be off to the Islands for the second straight year,” Bligh said, adding that the goal hasn’t changed since the beginning of the season.
“We want to be the first team in 68 years to go to the provincial tournament, so once we get to Islands, if we get to Islands next weekend, destiny’s ours,” he said.
The Wolverines have qualified for the upcoming AAA islands playoffs which take place between Thursday and Saturday this week.
First game will be vs. the Naniamo District Sr. secondary, the #2 seed from the north (Sooke is #3) which will take place on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.