-The Brattleboro Bears girls’ basketball team faced two tough opponents last week, with two very different results.
On the road against undefeated Rutland on Jan. 7, the Bears could not get shots to fall on offense, struggled on defense, and generally looked out of sync in a 58-36 loss. Three days later, in a Saturday matinee at the BUHS gym, the Bears played excellent defense and got just enough scoring to beat the St. Johnsbury Hilltoppers, 38-28.
What accounted for the turnaround? Bears head coach Sarah Landers credited a couple of intense practices and lessons learned from their 56-33 loss to the Toppers on Jan. 3 in St. Johnsbury. “It’s tough to beat a team twice,” Landers said after the win. “We made the adjustments and played with more energy.”
There was one other factor. Senior point guard Reese Croutworst was 17 points away from reaching 1,000 points for her varsity career. The gym was full and the fans were primed to see some history be made. She fell one point short, scoring 16 in the victory, but instead of seeing history, the Bears fans got a great basketball game and a win against a team Brattleboro rarely defeats.
“All the hype around the 1,000 points got the team, and the fans, fired up,” said Croutworst after the game. It was the first time in her career that the Bears beat the Toppers. “We just went out there and got the job done,” Croutworst said.
That was a mild understatement by Croutworst. The Bears had good ball movement and were patient in finding the best shooting opportunities, and their pressure defense and rebounding shut down St. Johnsbury’s offense for long stretches of the game.
Brattleboro took a 12-4 lead after one quarter as guards Emerson Frehsee and Myah Waite both sank three-pointers, Croutworst had a pair of buckets, and center Parker Thibault scored off a rebound.
St. Johnsbury cut the lead to 16-11 at the half as ninth-grader Amelia Rossiter sank the first of her four three-pointers in the game and Emily Clark added four more points. While the Bears offense went cold, the defensive intensity never wavered.
That intensity continued in the third quarter as the Toppers failed to score while Croutworst got seven points and guard Hailey Bristol added four more to increase the Bears’ lead to 27-11 heading into the final quarter.
Rossiter, the Toppers’ high scorer with 14 points, helped St. Johnsbury snap out of their offensive funk with an 11-point effort in the fourth quarter, but Bristol helped the Bears stay in front with seven points while Croutworst was held to a single free throw.
The Bears ended the week with a 3-5 record and a much needed lift heading toward the midpoint of the season.
Croutworst’s quest for her 1,000th point will continue on Jan. 14, when the Bears are in Manchester to face Burr & Burton.
Wildcats stop Rebels, 43-22
• In their second game coming off a long holiday break, the Twin Valley girls’ basketball team picked up their second consecutive victory with a 43-22 win over Leland & Gray on Jan. 8.
Twin Valley’s Kate Oyer had an outstanding all-around game, according to head coach Jaime Brown. “She was awesome tonight,” said Brown. “Kate really led the way. She stepped up. She had 20 points, she had eight rebounds, and eight steals, so that was huge.”
Joslyn Codogni was the team’s second leading scorer with nine points, all but two of which came in the fourth quarter. Codogni also added five rebounds and two steals on the night.
The Wildcats jumped out to an 11-0 lead over the Rebels in the first six minutes in the first quarter. The Wildcats pressed the Rebels much of the first half, coming up with several steals that helped spark the offense. By the middle of the second quarter, the lead had ballooned to 25-3.
Leland & Gray’s Annabelle Brookes, who was back on the floor for the first time since getting hurt in the Rebels’ first game of the season, scored three quick buckets late in the second quarter to begin to help lead the Rebels back.
“Having her back is really helpful. She can just read the floor so well, which helps all of us so much because they are learning a lot with reading the floor right now,” said Leland & Gray head coach Hannah Landers of Brookes. “They know what to do with the ball. They know what to do on defense, so I think in the next couple games we’re going to have some success because it’s finally clicking in their heads.”
A field goal by Eliza Perkins and a pair of free throws by Amelia Crockett cut Twin Valley’s lead to 29-13 at the half. The Rebels came out strong in the third quarter defensively, coming up with more steals than in the first half.
“We’re definitely building up on that,” said Landers. “A good defensive team wins games. We’re also working on our shooting obviously, but defense is definitely the base and we’ve improved astronomically since the beginning of our season in our defensive game. So, we’ve just got to keep building that up.”
In the third quarter the Wildcats went away from the full-court press defense they had been playing in the first half. On the offensive end, both teams struggled in the third. Leland & Gray scored five points on a 3-pointer by Brookes and a field goal by Hope Landers, who was the team’s second leading scorer with four points.
Twin Valley, while they had a good first half offensively, were unable to score any points in the quarter and went into the fourth up 29-18. A bucket by the Rebels’ Braelyn Howe to start the fourth cut the Twin Valley lead to nine; the smallest lead of the game since the first quarter.
A little over a minute later, Oyer split two defenders for a layup and, seconds later, made a shot underneath the basket and was fouled. She sank the free throw and the pair of buckets began a 13-0 run that also included a pair of three-pointers by Codogni to make it 42-20 with 2:45 remaining.
It was also in the fourth quarter that the full-court press defense, which had helped the Wildcats build a large lead in the first half, reappeared.
“We put the pressure back on, but it’s good experience for when games get close. You can’t mentally just check out. You have to fight through it, so I thought we did that,” said Brown.
It was the second straight win for Twin Valley, who defeated Mill River 36-24 on Jan. 5. Nella Warner led the team in scoring against Mill River with 14 points. Oyer had 12 points, 12 rebounds and four steals. Codogni had 11 rebounds and four steals and Carla Sprague had nine rebounds.
Along with a 50-39 win over Poultney on Jan. 10, the Wildcats are now 4-1 and will host Proctor on Jan. 15, while 0-9 Leland & Gray will host Mount St. Joseph Jan. 19.
Boys’ basketball
• Brattleboro got clobbered by Rutland, 93-35, on Jan. 6. The visiting Bears briefly had a lead in this game and, after Rutland tied the game 11-11 in the opening quarter, they went on a 27-2 run to take the lead to stay. Callan Wood led Rutland with 21 points, while Hudson Smith was Brattleboro’s top scorer with 12 points.
• Landon Brown scored 35 points, and Niko Gerding added 16 more as Twin Valley edged Woodstock, 73-72, in Whitingham on Jan. 7. Brown was the hero of the game when he scored the deciding basket with 4.2 seconds left, then stole Woodstock’s ensuing inbound pass to secure the win.
• Bellows Falls lost to White River Valley, 77-57, at Holland Gymnasium on Jan. 9 to fall to 2-4 on the season.
• Leland & Gray is still searching for its first win. The Rebels lost at Arlington, 67-57, on Jan. 9 to fall to 0-6.
Ice hockey
• McCann Tech defeated the Brattleboro boys, 7-4, on Jan. 3 in North Adams, Massachusetts. McCann took a 4-0 lead in the first period, but the Bears steadied themselves and scored four goals in the second period, including a hat trick by Henry Schwartz. However, McCann added two goals in the second period and one more in third to seal the victory. The Bears will be back in action on Jan. 14 when they host Hartford.
• The Brattleboro girls scored the first goal of the game against Spaulding, but the Crimson Tide then scored nine unanswered goals as the Bears lost, 9-1, at Withington Rink on Jan. 7. Jaidyn Denny got the Bears’ lone goal, and goaltender Dakota VonFeldt made 39 saves as she dealt with the Spaulding offensive barrage.
Additional skating, open gym hours for MLK Day
• With school out on Jan. 19 in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Brattleboro Recreation & Parks Department will offer additional Open Gym and Game Room hours for grades K-12 at the Gibson-Aiken Center. Open Gym is a free program for children of all ages. It is a supervised program with a variety of activities to choose from. Along with basketball, there is foosball, air hockey, pool, arts and crafts, and more.
There will also be additional public skating time at the Nelson Withington Skating Facility at Living Memorial Park from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. Skate rentals will be available for $3. For more information, call the Recreation & Parks office at 802-254-5808 or call Withington Rink at 802-257-2311.
Wine and Cheese snowshoe hikes in Grafton
• If you are looking for a different sort of winter outing, Grafton Trails & Outdoor Center, 783 Townshend Rd., is offering Wine and Cheese snowshoe hikes every Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. through Mar. 7.
Participants can take a 1-hour guided snowshoe tour through the forest at Grafton Trails, then enjoy a Grafton Village Cheese plate and two glasses of wine at the cabin. The cost is $55 per person, including equipment. For availability and reservations, call 802-843-2400.
Senior bowling roundup
• The winter/spring season of the Brattleboro Senior Bowling League at Brattleboro Bowl began Jan. 8 with Lucky 7 (5-0) as the only undefeated team. Spare Time (4-1) is in second place, followed by Slo Movers, Wayne’s World, and Serious (all 3-2); Bowling Stones, Strikers, and Three Strikes (all 2-3); Bad Boys (1-4), and Team 8 (0-5).
Debbie Kolpa had the women’s high handicap game (240) and series (683). Warren Corriveau Sr. had the men’s high handicap game (262) and Eric Brown had the high handicap series (655). Lucky 7 had the high team handicap game (893) and series (2,469).
Kevin Napaver had the men’s high scratch series (752) with games of 276, 247, and 229, while Milt Sherman had a 606 series with games of 227 and 191. Corriveau had a 598 series with games of 247 and 191, Robert Rigby had a 597 series with games of 229 and 203, and John Walker had a 571 series with games of 194 and 191. Gary Montgomery had a 531 series and Peter Deyo had a 530 series with a 191 game.
Kolpa had the women’s high scratch series (494) and Carol Gloski had the high scratch game (178). Kolpa had games of 177 and 169, while Andrea Papanek had games of 176 and 161.
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. With additional reporting by Brandon Canevari of the Deerfield Valley News.
This Sports column by Randolph T. Holhut was written for The Commons.