The Whaler boys basketball team gave up 31 points in the fourth quarter of Tuesday afternoon’s game against the Sandwich Blue Knights, which was ultimately their downfall in a 77-71 loss.
“I had a bad day today and I think this one is on me,” head coach Willis Ferreira said. “I take a lot of this on myself. I could have done a lot more to help the team win. These kids were the better team all game long. This one is going to be haunting me the rest of the night. There were some moments later in the game where I could have called a timeout and settled things down but I didn’t. I really felt like we should have won this game. We played really well for the most part.”
The Whalers didn’t begin the game too well, falling into a 20-10 hole after one quarter thanks to a lack of aggressiveness on the offensive end of the court.
“We weren’t good at all to begin the game,” Ferreira said. “We just weren’t ourselves. No one was being aggressive and attacking the rim. Everyone was kind of just standing around waiting for someone else to do something. After that first quarter, we played much better and were the better team.”
The Whalers outscored the Blue Knights 46-26 in the next two quarters and appeared to be on their way to victory entering the fourth quarter up 56-46.
“At the end of three when you are up ten and scoring at will, your team is feeling really good about itself,” Ferreira said. “But it just seemed to cool down in the final quarter and as if a lid was put on top of the hoop. Yes we gave up 31 points but we should have had at least 30 ourselves. That was the type of game it was. We needed to score in those final few minutes and didn’t, but I think I deserve a lot of blame for how I handled those final minutes. I didn’t put these kids in the best position with how I managed the game.”
Sophomore guard Carlos Aguilar led the way with 16 points for Nantucket. He was one of four Whalers to score at least 10 points with senior center JJ Bennett (14), Junior forward Karson Wellington (12), and senior guard Makai Bodden (12) being the other three.
“While I told them I am putting this one on me, we need to get back in the gym and go to work,” Ferreira said. “We need to continue working on our basketball IQs and we need to continue to get better every day. We need to take this feeling, soak it in, and use it to motivate us to be better.
The Whalers will have some time off before hosting Barnstable on Dec. 28 at 1 p.m.
