-There are some seasons when everything falls into place and a team has success. Then there are seasons where every game is a struggle, even when the effort is there. The Leland & Gray boys’ basketball team is having that kind of season.
The Rebels have only three seniors, one of them being an Italian exchange student — Tommaso Spitaleri — who is playing his first season of competitive basketball. The other seven players on the roster have limited varsity experience. Add in injuries and illness that have left the team even more shorthanded, and what you get is a team that reached the midpoint of the season with a 2-7 record.
Leland & Gray picked up their first victory of the season on Jan. 14 with a 48-21 win over visiting Long Trail School. They hoped to build on that success when the Poultney Blue Devils came to Townshend on Jan. 16. Instead, the Rebels lost, 56-48.
This was a winnable game, despite the Devils holding the lead for all but the first three minutes of the first quarter. Poultney led 13-10 heading into the second quarter and 23-17 at halftime.
The Rebels hung around in the second half as they used a full-court press on defense and closed the gap with an 8-2 run to start the third quarter. Poultney’s lead was down to 27-25 at the midpoint of the third, but the Rebels could get no closer.
Rebels head coach Bob Culver said turnovers and too many missed shots from close range were the story of this game. Still, he thought his team put in a good effort “considering the kind of week we had, with five or six kids out with the flu.”
Culver cited the effort of senior guard Logan Plimpton, who scored a team-high 20 points after being out due to illness for three weeks. “That was cool to have him back finally and be that successful where he hasn’t been that successful yet this year,” said Culver.
Sophomore Dakota Shippee and junior Spencer Claussen, who keyed the big run at the start of the third quarter, finished with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
However, the Rebels had a hard time stopping the Devils’ top two players as Eric Kendall had 24 points, six rebounds, and five steals, and Talan Chalmers had 10 points, eight steals, and four assists. The Devils also controlled the boards as center Gabe Casey and forward Will DiBonis combined for 19 rebounds.
“We definitely knew we had to keep the ball out of [Kendall and Chalmers] hands and pressure everyone else,” said Culver, which was why he went to the press to start the second half. It almost worked, but the Rebels could not complete the comeback.
Culver said it will take patience and time as his players work on improving their play. That means giving the younger players more time on the court to gain experience while leaning on the seniors for leadership. That formula may have helped the Rebels beat Sharon Academy, 47-38, on Jan. 17.
Croutworst gets her 1,000th career point
• Brattleboro senior point guard Reese Croutworst fell one point short of reaching the 1,000-point milestone at home against St. Johnsbury on Jan. 10. Against Burr & Burton on Jan. 14 in Manchester, Croutworst got that task out of the way by scoring 16 points in leading the Bears to a 39-35 win.
The 1,000th point came on a free throw with 2:40 left in the first quarter, and the game was halted briefly to celebrate the achievement. Croutworst, who now has 1,015 points in her four years with the BUHS varsity, is the fourth girls’ basketball player to top 1,000 career points. And, this total doesn’t account for Croutworst’s eighth-grade season, when she played varsity basketball at Twin Valley.
I didn’t see Barb Barrett (1,035 points, Class of 1984) play, but I did see the top two players on the list, Kari Greenbaum and Kathy Georgina, during my first tour at the Brattleboro Reformer from 1989 to 1995.
Greenbaum scored 1,420 points for BUHS between 1988 and 1991, then went up to the University of Vermont to score 1,252 points and help lead the Catamounts to two undefeated seasons (1991-92 and 1992-93) and UVM’s first appearances in the NCAA women’s tournament. Also a standout in field hockey and softball, she was inducted into the Vermont Principals’ Association Hall of Fame in 2022.
Georgina scored 1,108 points between 1989 and 1992. She was a good soccer player, a great basketball player, and an even better softball player. She pitched BUHS to state championships in 1991 and 1992 and then played four seasons of softball at Springfield College from 1994 to 1997. She was twice an academic All-American and went on to become the longtime coach at Agawam (Mass.) High School.
As for Barrett, she was one of the all-time greats in field hockey, basketball, and softball, and led BUHS to its only girls’ basketball state title in 1983, as well as a state championship in softball that year. She went on to an outstanding basketball and softball career at Assumption College.
Greenbaum and Georgina were part of an extraordinary run of success for Brattleboro, with four straight appearances in the Division I girls’ basketball finals from 1991 to 1994. Together with Barrett, all are in the BUHS Hall of Fame.
In my opinion, Croutworst is as good a player as Greenbaum and Georgina, but she hasn’t had the chance to savor postseason success on the basketball court, although she did get a chance to experience a playoff win in soccer this past season.
Maybe this year, the Bears might give Croutworst a chance to add a basketball playoff victory or two to her resume. However, even if that doesn’t happen, her status is secure as being among the best female athletes who’ve worn the purple and white in the past four decades.
Girls’ basketball
• Bellows Falls got off to a fast start against White River Valley on Jan. 12, but the Wildcats came back strong in the second half to give the Terriers a scare. BF managed to hang on for a 46-40 win.
BF’s defense keyed an 18-3 run in the first quarter, while Abby Nystrom and Gracie Patterson both sank a pair of three-pointers. White River Valley turned the tables by outscoring the Terriers, 18-9, in the third quarter before BF reasserted control in the final quarter. Nystrom finished with 21 points, including five threes. A 65-35 win at Woodstock on Jan. 15 gave the Terriers a 7-2 record at the midpoint of the season.
• Leland & Gray fell to 0-10 with a 43-30 loss to Mill River in Townshend on Jan. 12. The Rebels led 15-7 at the end of the first quarter, but the Minutewomen rallied and took a 20-17 lead at the half, before pulling away in the second half. Chloe Kennedy led Mill River with 20 points, while Annabelle Brookes led the Rebels with 15 points.
• Mount St. Joseph used an 18-2 run in the third quarter to put away the Twin Valley Wildcats, 52-34, on Jan. 12 in Rutland. Izzy Smith led a shorthanded MSJ team with a career-high 20 points, while Kate Oyer had 21 points for Twin Valley. The Wildcats bounced back with a 41-29 win over Proctor on Jan. 15 in Whitingham. Kate Oyer again led the way for the 5-2 Wildcats with another 21-point game, with 12 rebounds and 11 steals, while ninth-grader Joslyn Codogni added eight points and 13 steals.
Boys’ basketball
• Scoring 100 points in a high school basketball game is a rarity in Vermont. Twin Valley has done it three times so far this season.
On Jan. 9 in North Clarendon, the Wildcats blasted Mill River, 108-59. Landon Brown led the Wildcats with a career-high 36 points to go with 11 rebounds, nine assists and five steals. Niko Gerding added 26 points and Benny Gerding had a career-high 16 points, in addition to six rebounds and six assists. Konner Janovsky chipped in 11 points, Tucker Magnant had six assists, Carson McHale with eight rebounds and five steals, and Max Nido pulled down 12 rebounds.
Brayden Brown, who missed several games after suffering a concussion, came back in a big way against Grace Christian on Jan. 13 in Whitingham, scoring 43 points as the Wildcats romped to a 96-40 win. Landon Brown added 17 points and nine rebounds, while Niko Gerding chipped in 13 points. Twin Valley had their reserves playing the fourth quarter, and still almost scored 100 points.
Another 100-point game had to wait until Jan. 16, when the Wildcats hosted the Green Mountain Grizzlies and cruised to a 101-43 win to improve Twin Valley’s record to 7-2. The Brown brothers again did the heavy lifting as Landon led the Wildcats with 31 points, while Brayden scored 25 points. Wyatt Koch had 16 points for GM.
• Bellows Falls overcame a 27-20 deficit at halftime to beat Green Mountain, 59-53, at Nason Gymnasium in Chester on Jan. 13. GM is now 3-5 on the season, while the Terriers improved to 3-4.
Ice hockey
• The Brattleboro boys started out strong against the Stowe Raiders on Jan. 9 at Withington Rink, getting goals from Dominic McKay and Max Madow to take a 2-0 lead after one period. However, Stowe took control by scoring three unanswered goals in the third period for a 5-3 win.
Brattleboro still had a lead at the end of the second period. Colby Robinson scored for the Bears with 35 seconds left, but Stowe got two goals in the period to tighten things up heading into the third, when the Raiders took over the game.
The Bears traveled south to Massachusetts to face Amherst-Pelham on Jan. 12, and suffered an agonizing 4-3 loss. Gabe Alexander scored all three Brattleboro goals — two in the second period and another in the third — but Amherst scored the game-winning goal with 2:24 left in regulation.
The agony continued on Jan. 14 at Withington Rink, when the Hartford Hurricanes beat the Bears, 5-4, as ninth-grader Kaiden Allen got the game-winning goal with just one second left in the final period. It spoiled another strong game for the Bears’ offense as Henry Schwartz, Jackson Patno, Jordan Denny, and Alexander all scored goals. Brattleboro fell to 1-7-1 on the season.
• The Brattleboro girls remain winless after a 9-1 loss at Middlebury on Jan. 14. The 0-6 Bears are at Hartford on Jan. 21.
Senior bowling roundup
• Week 2 of the winter/spring season of the Brattleboro Senior Bowling League at Brattleboro Bowl Jan. 15 saw Lucky 7 and Spare Time (both 8-2) tied for first place, followed by Wayne’s World (7-3), Bad Boys (5-5), Slo Movers, Candy Men, Serious, and Three Strikes (all 4-6); and Bowling Stones and Strikers (both 3-7).
Pam Greenblott had the women’s high handicap game (232) and Debbie Kolpa had the high handicap series (638). Peter Deyo had the men’s high handicap game (263) and series (692), and Bad Boys had the high team handicap game (908) and series (2,564).
Deyo had the men’s high scratch series (670) with games of 255, 224, and 191, while Kevin Napaver had a 665 series with games of 258 and 234. Robert Rigby had a 644 series with games of 243 and 214, Gary Montgomery had a 562 series with games of 192 and 190, and John Walker had a 554 series with games of 199 and 191. Milt Sherman had a 512 series, Stan Kolpa had a 506 series, Duane Schillemat had a 200 game, and Wayne Randall rolled a 193.
Nancy Dalzell had the women’s high scratch series (449), with games of 169 and 166. Greenblott had the high scratch game (173). Carol Gloski had a 169 game, and Kolpa rolled a 165.
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.