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Rainmakers senior boys victorious in home opener

The CHSS Rainmakers senior boys’ basketball team played their home opener against Caledonia over the weekend.
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Rosendo Masocol heads up-court in hot pursuit by three Caledonia Kermodes in the Rainmakers’ 59-52 win over CAL in their first game on Saturday morning. Kyler Reece

With two starters already on the sidelines for the Charles Hays Rainmakers senior boys’ basketball team, the last thing they wanted to see was another body go down, especially in their home opener.

But that’s what transpired on Saturday afternoon as Kyler Reece was taken out of their game against Caledonia with a lower body injury after diving for a loose ball.

The Rainmakers, who played well in Reece’s absence shot their way to a 59-52 win with two of five starters playing the entire game – Justin McChesney and Rosendo Masocol.

“[Kyler’s injury] hurt us because he was one of our best shooters for sure. He can knock ‘em down every time,” said Masocol, who led the ‘Makers in points, including a tremendous second quarter where he knocked down consecutive jump shots in the box and threes.

Caledonia was no easy foe for the hometown ballers on the weekend. With Reece, Perry Terrell and Kane Wesley out of the picture for now, the Kermodes took advantage and put up 52 points against the provincially-ranked No. 3 Rainmakers, who always try to keep their opponents to under 40 points, and rarely let them achieve more.

“We got the ‘W’ which is good,” continued Masocol, who dominated the floor with excellent ball handling and positional play, opening up avenues for the team to take advantage of.

“I’m trying to bring the team together, kind of get them on the same page – pretty much like the quarterback,” he said after the contest.

“We have the best guys in here. I just like to play an all-around game pretty much.”

Another hot hand on the day was Jakob Henry, who sank seven three-pointers during the game.

And it wasn’t just his offensive instincts that drew praise from both teammates and the coach.

“His defence today was really good so that helped us a lot,” said Masocol.

“He hit some big threes today – he shot well,” said head coach Mel Bishop.

After spotting the Rainmakers a 17-14 lead at the end of the first quarter, the Kermodes played the home side tight and were within three at the half with the score 32-29.

Tristan Walker scored a bucket early in the third frame to give the Kermodes a slim lead but timely shooting by Henry, McChesney and Masocol got the ‘Makers ahead for good.

McChesney’s impact wasn’t felt as much through his offence but through his swift passing. Caledonia’s plan was to keep him contained with some double coverage.

“We get him in the post and they’re throwing a couple bodies at him so he’s always at least double-teamed,” said Bishop.

“I thought he made some great passes out of the post. He makes the game easier for us. They’ve got to run another guy at him so our perimeter’s open. [Caledonia’s] philosophy is they’re not letting him get the ball inside so we’ve got to take a lot of perimeter shots. If we hit them, we’re in good shape.”

The ‘Makers hit them more often than not and it gave them two wins on the weekend as they followed up their first victory with a 66-45 win later in the day.

Gabriel Johnson and Ryan Kunar were the offensive catalysts for the Kermodes in Game One. Johnson scored 13 points and Kunar notched 11. Walker also matched Johnson’s totals with 13 points of his own for Terrace.

The senior girls’ squad played as well but Caledonia was too much for them to handle and the Terrace girls beat them 69-28.

The senior boys are now 9-1 in regional and tournament play this season, only losing to quad-A Kitsilano in the North Shore Invitational Tournament in December.

“This is after Christmas. We’re a little bit slower. We practiced over the holidays but not a lot of game stuff; more individual stuff so this is good for us,” said Bishop.

This weekend, the Skidegate senior boys will be making the trek across the water to play a best-of-three series on Friday and Saturday versus the Rainmakers.

As for Reece, Bishop said he’ll be getting his leg checked out via X-ray and the team is hoping for nothing major to come out of it.

The only teams ranked higher by the Vancouver Province in the AAA B.C. high school division are the Abbotsford Panthers and Richmond’s R.A. McMath Wildcats.

If the starters continue to labour on the injured reserve, more Rainmakers will get the chance to shine in their place. Henry has been shooting extremely well beyond the arc and Cole Marogna, Aiden Bull and Nicolis Campbell have also done a serviceable job off the bench for the powerhouse ‘Makers.

They’ll look to remain undefeated in 2015 with their games against Skidegate Friday and Saturday this weekend at the school’s gymnasium.