-Combine a game between a local rival with Senior Night, and you get a night with a little more energy and emotion than the other games on the schedule, especially for the home team. The Brattleboro Bears girls’ basketball drew from that energy and defeated a strong Bellows Falls team with a 53-44 victory at the BUHS gym on Feb. 17.
Bellows Falls entered the game as one of the top teams in Division III, while Brattleboro is in the middle of the Division I pack. It was an opportunity for the Terriers to see if they measured up against a decent upper division team, but the Bears quickly crushed any hope of a BF upset by outscoring the Terriers, 21-2, during a dominant opening quarter where Brattleboro used its size to shut down the Terriers offense.
Brattleboro’s seniors led the way as Reese Croutworst (17 points), Parker Thibault (13 points), and Emerson Frehsee (eight points) did the bulk of the damage. That trio joined Destiny Thibault and Myah White in being honored before the game, with both teams agreeing to give White — who has missed much of the season with a broken right wrist — a chance to score an uncontested basket after the opening tip.
BF tried their best to get back into the game. They trailed 34-14 at halftime and 43-29 after three quarters, but Brattleboro’s big early lead was ultimately too much to overcome. The Terriers’ top two scorers all season — Avery Maxfield and Abby Nystrom — finished with 18 and 11 points, respectively, and Grace Patterson chipped in seven points.
Brattleboro head coach Sarah Landers said she was proud that her players led the game from start to finish. “We’re going to keep grinding, keep trying to get those wins,” she said. She was especially proud of her five seniors. “I think that they are gritty, they are hardworking, and we’re going to miss them greatly next year because they are just such wonderful kids on and off the court,” said Landers. “They’re good leaders and they’re good teammates.”
BF wrapped up the regular season with a 45-27 win over visiting Green Mountain on Feb. 19 and a 59-15 win against Poultney on Feb. 21, while Brattleboro won its regular season finale against Springfield, 66-36, on Feb. 21.
BUHS gymnasts third in state championship meet
• Brattleboro completed another strong season with a third place finish in the state championship meet on Feb. 21 at Kingdom Gymnastics in St. Johnsbury.
St. Johnsbury won the team title with a score of 145.875 points. Essex was second with 140 points and the Bears were third with 134.975 points.
Senior co-captain Lauren Chute led the team with a first-place performance on the balance beam. She was also second in bars, third in the vault, and fifth in floor exercises to finish second in all-around scoring. Senior co-captain Sadie Cheslawski was sixth in floor.
Also competing were Juliete Pals, Ciana Grasso. Cameron Lawrence, Hailey Richards, Bethany Traudt, Helen Webb, and Amara Turna. Another team member, Kiya Elliot, was unable to attend. The Bears are coached by Karen Gallivan and Julio Del Sesto.
Girls’ basketball
• The Vermont girls’ basketball tournament begins this week, with first-round games set for Feb. 24 and 25.
• At 9-11, Brattleboro got the No. 8 seed in Division I and will host No. 9 Colchester at the BUHS gym on Feb. 25.
• Bellows Falls earned the No. 4 seed in Division III and will host No. 13 Winooski on Feb. 25 at Holland Gymnasium.
• Twin Valley was seeded 10th in the Division IV tournament with a 9-10 record. They will travel to Orford, New Hampshire, to face the No. 7 Rivendell Raptors on Feb. 24. The Wildcats lost their final regular game to Woodstock, 55-41, on Feb. 21.
• Leland & Gray will sit out the Division IV playoffs after compiling a 1-19 record. On Feb. 21 in Townshend, they lost the season finale to Long Trail School, 47-26, as they honored the team’s lone senior, Annabelle Brookes.
Boys’ basketball
• Undefeated West Rutland has been a juggernaut in Division IV this season, and were totally unfazed by making a trip to Whitingham to take on Twin Valley on Feb. 19. The Golden Horde came away with a fast-paced 83-70 win, despite the best efforts of the Wildcats to spoil their bid for a perfect regular season record.
Brayden Brown had his third 40-point game of the season, which moved the junior into second place on the all-time Wilmington/Twin Valley boys’ career scoring list with 1,502 points. His younger brother, freshman Landon Brown, added 13 points and Niko Gerding scored 11 points. Peter Guay led the Horde with 29 points.
• Bellows Falls has had problems this season getting off to good starts when they are the visiting team, but the Terriers put their traveling blues behind them on Feb. 18 when they went to North Clarendon and soundly defeated Mill River, 75-58.
BF opened with a 13-2 run and led 42-32 at halftime. They took control of the game by outscoring Mill River 25-10 in the third quarter. The offense was clicking, led by Jaden Bazin with 19 points, Saul James with 17 points, Jacob Kissell with 14 points and Coby Levesque with 12 points.
The Terriers were back on the road on Feb. 21 against Otter Valley, and lost 67-64. BF will finish the regular season this week with home games against Brattleboro, Hartford, and Mount Anthony.
• Brattleboro rallied to beat Springfield, 71-69, on Feb. 17. The visiting Bears trailed for most of the game and didn’t nail down the win until Logan Waite scored in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter. The Bears improved to 6-11 with the win.
• Leland & Gray came up short in their Senior Game as they lost 59-35 to Rivendell on Feb. 19. The 4-13 Rebels honored seniors Logan Plimpton, Colin Dunleavy-Mercier, and Ryder Butynski, along with Italian exchange student Tommaso Spitaleri in their final home game of their high school careers.
Ice hockey
• The Brattleboro girls lost 7-1 to the Stowe Raiders on Feb. 18 in their annual “Pink the Rink” fundraiser at Withington Rink for breast cancer awareness. Junior Jaidyn Denny had the lone goal for the 0-13-1 Bears with less than an minute remaining the game to spoil Stowe’s bid for a shutout. The Raiders scored five goals in the first period as junior goaltender Dakota VonFeldt faced 81 shots over three periods. She made 74 saves, including 22 in the final period.
On Feb. 21, Rutland completed a sweep of their season series with the 0-14-1 Bears with a 7-3 win. Brattleboro will finish the regular season this week with three road games.
• The Brattleboro boys snapped a 12-game losing streak on Feb. 21 with a 4-2 road win over Hartford. The Bears wrap up the regular season this week with road games against Woodstock and St. Johnsbury.
Sign-ups for Rec. Dept, spring sports begin March 2
• The Brattleboro Recreation & Parks Department says registration for their spring sports programs begins Monday, March 2. Programs include Intro to T-Ball, T-Ball, Small-Fry Baseball, Girls Youth Softball, Boys and Girls Lacrosse and Gymnastics.
Individuals can register online at vtbrattleboroweb.myvscloud.com/webtrac/web or in person Monday–Friday, 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4:30 p.m. at the Gibson-Aiken Center. For all programs, events, facility information, and more, visit their website at brattleboro.gov. Once you are on this page hover over the “Departments” tab on the blue horizontal bar. A new drop-down menu will appear and click “Recreation and Parks.”
If there are special needs required for these programs, let them know at least five days in advance. For more information, call the Gibson-Aiken office at 802-254-5808.
Senior bowling roundup
• Week 7 of the winter/spring season of the Brattleboro Senior Bowling League at Brattleboro Bowl Feb. 19 saw Bad Boys (25-10) have a 4-1 week to take over first place, followed by Wayne’s World (22-13), Strikers (21-14), Slo Movers (19-16), Spare Time (18-17), Three Strikes (15.5-19.5), Bowling Stones (15-20), Lucky 7 (14-21), Serious (13.5-21.5), and Candy Men (12-23).
Debbie Kolpa had the women’s high handicap game (223) and Diane Cooke had the high handicap series (632). Charlie Marchant had the men’s high handicap game (247) and series (669). Spare Time had the high team handicap game (897) and Bad Boys had the high handicap series (2,509).
Robert Rigby had the men’s high scratch series (667) with games of 268 and 223, while Kevin Napaver had a 645 series with games of 230, 213, and 202. Peter Deyo had a 590 series with games of 215 and 212, John Walker had a 580 series with games of 223 and 197, Warren Corriveau Sr. had a 562 series with a 223 game, and Gary Montgomery had a 534 series with a 221 game. Stan Kolpa rolled a 191.
Carol Gloski had the women’s high scratch series (479) and Debbie Kolpa had the high scratch game (182). Gloski rolled a 170.
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.