By Allison Goldsmith
I&M Sports Editor
After a month of practice with no game action, the junior varsity boys basketball team finally saw some competition last weekend. The Whalers picked up back-to-back wins on the road over Sturgis 42-33 Friday and South Shore Voke 58-43 Saturday.
“I was really happy to have some competition and it was pretty good competition,” head coach Dennis Caron said. “We have a lot of games in January. We are probably going to play more than we practice in January, which is good. This year has been a year of practice.”
Nantucket’s only other scheduled game was in December at Mashpee. But less than one minute into that game, the lights went out in the gym and the game was postponed.
The Whalers (2-0) will be busy next week, traveling to South Shore Voke on Saturday and Cape Cod Academy on Tuesday before welcoming Martha’s Vineyard to the island on Wednesday.
Against Sturgis on Friday, Nantucket showed some rust in the first quarter. The Whalers failed to score a basket as they fell behind to the Storm 11-2, picking up two free throws from Curren Huyser.
“We missed layups, we missed everything. We hadn’t played. We only had one practice coming back from vacation. We just hadn’t played and it took the second period to get it going,” Caron said.
The baskets started to fall as Whalers outscored Sturgis 17-6 in the second frame to take the 19-17 lead at the break.
Caron credited the swing in momentum to the switch of Michael Molta to the point guard slot.
“I really don’t have a pure point guard. I put him at the guard spot and he did a great job. We were able to distribute the ball and get the ball to the right people and we started to score,” Caron said.
Molta scored seven of his team-high 11 points in the second quarter to lift the Whalers.
In the third quarter, Huyser and Molta added four points each as Nantucket opened up the lead over the Storm. In the fourth, Sturgis put pressure on the Whalers lead, dropping 15 points in the quarter.
Josh Sibley-Liddle countered the Storm’s attack by scoring 11 points from the perimeter, including three three-pointers, to lead the Whalers to victory.
Jamie Viera and Huyser each scored six for Nantucket in the win.
Ready and able
The Whalers offense came to play against South Shore Voke on Saturday. Nantucket notched four players in double digits to earn the 58-43 win. Viera scored a team-high 18 points, Sibley-Liddle and Molta dropped 11 points and Huyser chipped in with 10 points in the victory.
“Usually in a high school game if you have four people in double figures you are going to win and we did,” Caron said.
The game was close as the dueling squads went into the half knotted at 26 points apiece. Nantucket came out with another strong fourth quarter, outscoring the Vikings 20-9 to earn the win.
Viera scored eight points in the final frame to lead the team.
“What impressed me about the South Shore game was that we worked the ball around and we were patient. We improved on our passing a lot more than we did the game before,” Caron said.
Molta had a second straight strong game running the offense from the point, which opened up Sibley-Liddle for a solid game on the wing.
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