Midseason Statistic Leaders For Nantucket Sport's Teams

All of this past weekend's games were postponed due to weather. After the MIAA released their first winter power rankings of the season for all hockey and basketball teams across the state, it seems to be a good time to look the Whaler's hockey and basketball teams and who has been leading the way for each of the Whaler teams in action.

BOYS HOCKEY

The boys hockey team is currently the #5 team in the Div. 4 MIAA state tournament bracket.
Junior center Ryan Davis has toned down the chirping and amped up the scoring this year. He’s been fantastic for Nantucket and is becoming a leader on and off the ice. He has a team-high five goals and eight points.
To put Nantucket’s schedule into perspective so far, their opponent rating of 1.1855 is the highest in Div. 4, just ahead of Sandwich’s 1.0074, meaning Nantucket has played the hardest schedule so far of any team in Div. 4 according to the MIAA.
Given the Whalers have already gone through the most difficult part of their schedule, the boys look like they could have an opportunity at a deep tournament run once again much like last year so long as they continue to put in the work that head coach Jack Moran Sr. and his staff have put them through, as it has made them into an extremely well-conditioned team.

GIRLS HOCKEY

Girls Hockey is currently outside of the tournament picture. One player that is not in the top three in scoring but has had a very strong impact on and off the ice is junior winger Emerson Pekarcik. She has two goals and an assist. She is one of the team’s best skaters.Senior captain Lydia Johnson has two points and has provided leadership. The Whalers were supposed to play the Dennis-Yarmouth Dolphins this weekend but the game was postponed due to weather. Nantucket is still trying to find a way to replace the scoring and leadership of Evelyn Fey, a senior captain last winter who finished her high school career with 50 points.

Fey was the first Whaler to do so in the program's short history, but some players will need to rise up to fill the void if the Whalers want to make a run at a tournament spot this season.

BOYS BASKETBALL

Boys basketball finds themselves at #21 in their tournament bracket. They are being led by junior forward Jayquan Francis and junior center Jack Halik, but clearly miss the scoring prowess of last year's senior group including Justin Bloise and Makai Bodden, but also JD Heneke, who was a sophomore sharpshooter for the Whalers who left NHS to join a prep school off island this winter.It should be mentioned that senior captain Karson Wellington has helped Nantucket at both ends of the floor, provided needed leadership, and his 22 points against Barnstable on Dec. 27 stands as the high for any player on Nantucket so far this season. Ferreira has said several times so far this season that if Nantucket wants to have success similar to last season's 15-5 regular season, that Wellington will need to be an efficient scorer the rest of the way.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

The girls basketball team, like the girls hockey team, is also outside the MIAA state tournament picture. However, the Whaler's secured their second win of the season on Friday against the Sturgis West Navigators 30-9.Senior point guard Ciara Barnett and sophomore guard/forward Maddie Lombardi continue to anchor Nantucket’s back court and scoring duties. Barnett has been Nantucket's most consistent scorer so far this season and head coach Raf Osona has said that the next step in her development is to facilitate and find her open teammates.

There is no question that Lombardi will be the leader of this team for the foreseeable future and has showed plenty of ability both as a scorer and as a defender. She has had some strong offensive performances including a 14 point game in Nantucket's 40-24 win over Sturgis West on Dec. 15 and a 15 point effort in Nantucket's 50-35 defeat at the hands of the St. John Paul II Lions on Jan. 6.Senior center Kacey Riseborough is coming off her game-high in points with 10 yesterday in Nantucket’s 30-9 victory and has been stout defensively, averaging 2.5 blocks per game.

As always, the Current will keep our readers and followers updated on how the winter sports teams perform the rest of the way. You can follow us on Instagram here and on Facebook here.