-The Vermont girls' basketball playoffs start this week with Brattleboro and Bellows Falls beginning their postseason journeys at home, while Twin Valley and Leland & Gray have first-round road games.
• Brattleboro completed the regular season with an 11-9 record and the seventh seed in Division I. They will host the No. 10 Colchester Lakers (5-15) in a first-round playoff game at the BUHS gym on March 5.
The Bears had their Senior Night game on Feb. 28 at the BUHS gym and defeated Hartford, 49-39. Brattleboro then had to travel to Fair Haven the following afternoon to face one of the top teams in Division II and lost 48-25.
• Bellows Falls finished with a 15-5 record and the sixth seed in Division III. They will host No. 11 Green Mountain (10-10) in a first-round game at Holland Gymnasium on March 5.
BF opened a busy final week of the regular season with a 77-32 rout of Woodstock on Feb. 24. The Terriers then eked out a 41-35 win at Leland & Gray on Feb. 25 and lost 50-39 to Division III powerhouse West River Valley on Feb. 27, before defeating Green Mountain, 49-38, on March 1.
• Leland & Gray ended the regular season with five straight losses to finish with a 6-14 record and the No. 11 seed in Division IV. After the BF loss at home on Feb. 24, the Rebels lost at Woodstock, 62-46, on Feb. 27.
At press time, the Rebels were set to face the No. 6 Poultney Blue Devils (11-9) in a first-round playoff game on March 4.
• Twin Valley finished with a 7-13 record and a No. 9 seed in Division IV. At press time, they were set to play the No. 8 Twinfield/Cabot Trojans (8-11) on March 4 in a first-round playoff game in Plainfield.
The Wildcats split their final two regular season games, both at home, last week. On Feb. 24, the Wildcats were beaten by Poultney, 40-26, and on March 1, they defeated Sharon Academy, 40-34.
Ice hockey
• The Brattleboro boys finished the regular season with a 6-2 loss to U-32 on Feb. 26 in Montpelier. Eli Edwards and Alex Dick were the goal scorers for the Bears, and Even Wright had two assists.
At 13-6-1, Brattleboro earned the No. 4 seed in the Division II playoffs. At press time, the Bears played host to fifth-seeded North Country in a quarterfinal game on March 4 at Withington Rink.
• It's been a hard luck season for the Brattleboro girls, but on Feb. 26, they savored a bit of success with a 6-2 road win over Rutland in the Bears' regular season finale. Considering the Bears lost the first meeting Rutland at Withington Rink, 4-2, the victory was a measure of how much they have grown as a team.
After Rutland scored the first two goals of the game, it was all Brattleboro. Michaela Heiden got the first Bears goal, and Jaidyn Denny got the next two goals to put the Bears in front, 3-2, heading into the third period. Heiden gave Brattleboro some breathing room with a goal early in the period. Kaya Gibson followed with her first varsity goal and Denny capped off the scoring with her third goal of the night.
With the victory, the Bears ended their season with a 3-15 record and will sit out the Division I playoffs. First-year head coach Alyssa Leonard, who will be graduating from Keene State College later this spring, took over the team just a couple of weeks before the start of the season. She did as well as could be expected given the big job of building up a team that started the season with only 13 players on the roster.
Leonard will have even more holes to fill on her roster next season as Heiden, Lakota Offenburger, Baylie Houle, Grechen Stromberg, Fiona Toole, Avery Hiner, Kelis Melo, and Nellie Sterling will all be graduating in June.
Boys' basketball
• Seventh-seeded Burr & Burton took a 21-4 lead after one quarter, and No. 10 Brattleboro never recovered as the Bulldogs went on to defeat the Bears, 60-45, in a Division I first-round playoff game in Manchester on Feb. 25.
Jackson Kunisch led the Bulldogs with 19 points and 12 rebounds, while teammates Grayson Rourke, Gavin Roberts, and Rhys Jones each added 12 points. Jack Cady was the top scorer for Brattleboro with 18 points, while Oscar Korson added 13 points.
As was the case in the regular season finale between the two teams on Feb. 21 in Brattleboro - a game that the Bulldogs won, 60-51 - Burr & Burton got off to a strong start on offense, forced numerous turnovers on defense, and forced the Bears to expend too much energy trying to catch up. Brattleboro got within 10 points of the Bulldogs midway through the fourth quarter, but the Bulldogs went 6-for-6 from the free throw line in the final minutes to seal the win.
The Bears finished the season at 7-14, and will lose Cady, Korson, John Satterfield, Dillon Jenks, Levi Tabachnick, and Keegan Systo to graduation. After the Feb. 21 loss, head coach Winston Sailsman Jr. talked about how the Bears were trying to build a foundation for a successful basketball program and said the seniors on the team had played a major role in helping to change the culture of the team.
Sailsman said he hopes the returning underclassmen learned from the seniors the value of hard work and not giving up, and that fans of the Bears will see the result of those lessons in the coming seasons.
• Fifth-seeded Twin Valley was faced with entering the Division IV playoffs without its top scorer. Guard Brayden Brown was sidelined with an illness, but his teammates picked up the slack in a 54-39 win over the 12th-seeded Leland & Gray Rebels in Whitingham on Feb. 26.
Sophomore Nico Gerding scored 12 points, junior Steven Oyer had 12 points and 12 rebounds, and junior Carson McHale had 11 points and 10 rebounds as the Wildcats controlled the glass at both ends of the court.
Senior Ely White led the Rebels with 10 points, while senior Cody Hescock and sophomore Spencer Claussen each scored eight points and junior Logan Plimpton added seven points. Twin Valley led 27-18 at the half and turned back several efforts by the Rebels to climb back into contention in the second half.
The Wildcats could survive being without Brown against the Rebels, but his absence was definitely felt when they headed north to face fifth-seeded Williamstown in a quarterfinal game on Feb. 28.
Gerding scored 16 of his team-high 18 points in the first half, but it wasn't enough as the Blue Devils rolled to a 73-29 win. Twin Valley trailed 20-15 after one quarter, 38-15 at halftime, and 55-27 after three quarters. Williamstown used a balanced attack as 11 of their 12 players scored, led by Evan Bailey's 11 points and 10 points each from Que Horace and Nick Mascitti. Twin Valley finished the season with a 16-6 record.
• It took three overtimes, but No. 9 Bellows Falls pulled out a 67-62 win over No. 8 Green Mountain in a Division III first-round thriller in Chester on Feb. 26.
BF then had to face the top-seeded and undefeated White River Valley Wildcats in the quarterfinals on March 1 in South Royalton, and the result was a 93-41 loss.
There was no shame losing to the 22-0 Wildcats, who scored 85 or more points in nine of their games, including 100-plus point games against Bellows Falls (101-35 on Jan. 29), Twin Valley (105-42 on Feb. 5), and Leland & Gray (101-41 on Feb. 11).
Bellows Falls finished the regular season at 11-11, and will lose six seniors to graduation - Carson Clark, Will Hallock, Eli Allbee, Andrew Dunbar, Douglas Sterling, and Robert Roman.
• With the loss to Twin Valley, Leland & Gray's season ended with a 2-19 record. White and Hescock are the only seniors on the roster who will be graduating in June, so head coach Bobby Culver will have nearly all of this season's team back for the 2025-26 season.
Nordic skiing
• The Vermont state Nordic skiing championships concluded on Feb. 25 with classic races at Prospect Mountain Nordic Ski Center in Woodford.
The Brattleboro boys finished third in the team scoring with a combined score of 227 after the two days of competition. Mount Mansfield won the state team title with 67 points, with Champlain Valley a distant second with 190 points.
In the individual race, Willow Sharma was the lone Brattleboro skier in the top 10, finishing 10th in 19 minutes, 24 seconds. In the relay, Brattleboro finished third in 42 minutes, 29.6 seconds.
Senior bowling roundup
• Week 7 of the winter/spring season of the Brattleboro Senior Bowling League at Brattleboro Bowl on Feb. 27 saw Renegades (26-9) hold onto first place, with Charlie's Angels (22-13) moving into second, followed by Slo Movers and Full Monty (both 20-15), Double Trouble (19-16), Wayne's World and Sandbaggers (18-17), Niners (16-19), and Let 'Em Roll (14-21).
Debbie Rittenhour had the women's high handicap game (244) and Nancy Dalzell had the high handicap series (652), while Charlie Marchant had the men's high handicap game (243) and Fred Bump had the high handicap series (668). Sandbaggers had the high team handicap game (857) and Charlie's Angels had the high handicap series (2,475).
Both Robert Rigby and Kevin Napaver had the men's high scratch series (620). Rigby had games of 215, 203, and 202, while Napaver had games of 235 and 209. Warren Corriveau Sr. had a 595 series with games of 201, 201, and 193. Peter Deyo had a 594 series with games of 214 and 192, Mike Pavlovich had a 531 series with a 192 game, Jerry Dunham had a 526 series with a 200 game, Gary Montgomery had a 524 series with a 199 game, and Rick Pietro had a 511 series.
Dalzell had the women's high scratch series (466) and game (179). Rittenhour had a 169 game.
Randolph T. Holhut, deputy editor of this newspaper, has written this column since 2010 and has covered sports in Windham County since the 1980s. Readers can send him sports information at news@commonsnews.org.
This Sports column by Randolph T. Holhut was written for The Commons.