Rainmakers open season in Terrace with twin wins, move on to next challenge in North Vancouver this week

The CHSS Sr Boys Rainmakers
took two wins out of the Kermodes
Den in Terrace on Saturday

It was a successful debut to the 2022-23 BC High school basketball season over the weekend, with the Charles Hays Rainmakers taking victories in both their games in Terrace at the Caledonia Secondary school Gymnasium.

Coach Ryan Bishop provided a glimpse of the weekend noting a flat start in their first game against Nisga'a. 

The match up making for the first competitive action of the season for the team, but a second half brought them "a hard fought win" as Coach Ryan Bishop put it,  with a final score of 82-70 

The leading scorers of the match up include:

Kole Leighton -21, Josh Thompson – 18, Darren Budskin -17 Josh Aparicio -14

The coach provides a good bit of play by play to account for the second mathcup of the day a showdown with the host Kermodes. 

In the second game the defensive intensity picked up and we beat Caledonia 77-48. 

 The game was very close in the early stages of the second quarter but then we went on a 17-0 run at the end of the quarter to take a 38-21 lead into the half. 

The third quarter was very close then we won the fourth quarter 23-12 to get the end score of 77-48. 

High scorers for Game Two were: 

Josh Aparicio-19, Darren Budskin-14, Jon Clifton-13, Kole Leighton -10.

Bishop highlighted how the team is coming together in these early days of the season and the wide range of talent he and assistant coach Ben Mark have to work with.

So we have some very even scoring which is always good to see and on any given night we have a lot of players that are capable of scoring double digits. Still need to tighten up defensive rotations but overall we are very impressed with how they played this weekend

The team is back into practice mode in anticipation of a big weekend ahead as they make their first travel to the south of the year, with an appearance at the No Regrets Tournament in North Vancouver.

Their first test is an exhibition matchup with Collingwood that was preseason # 6 in AA and then the Rainmakers open the No Regrets against the preseason #1 St. Thomas Aquainis. 

Coach Ryan noting that the team has "an opportunity to prove ourselves against some of the top teams in the province this year early on"

You can catch up on some of our past Rainmaker notes from our archive page here.