After a weekend of strong competition against some of Vancouver Island's top-10 AA senior boys basketball teams, the Duncan Christian School Chargers went up a level to take on the AAA Ballenas Whalers on Monday.
Despite a few injury problems, the single-A Chargers emerged on top, beating Ballenas 67-45.
"We scored the first two points of the game and then things started going sideways injury-wise," said DCS coach Jim Brandsma.
Michael Brandsma dislocated the pinky finger on his shooting hand, Johnny Caron suffered a concussion and a sprained finger, Chaz Milne aggravated a back injury by charging hard to the bucket, and highscoring Nick Kapteyn had to sit out nearly
an entire quarter with a strained right leg.
The Chargers managed to cope with the rash of injuries.
"We had the other guys really step up," Brandsma said. "Doug Groenendijk, Alan Park, Adam Kapteyn, Jesse Van Wingerden worked really hard on both sides of the court."
Nick Kapteyn still finished with a teamhigh 15 points, while Groenendijk, Park and Van Wingerden each had 14.
Park and Groenendijk added 10 rebounds apiece, while Nick Kapteyn had six. Groenendijk had six of the team's 15 steals, while Van Wingerden had five and led the Chargers with five assists.
The Chargers were rewarded for their recent efforts by moving up two spots in the provincial rankings, from seventh place to fifth.