It's been a difficult season for the Bellows Falls Terriers. Entering their Jan. 24 home game against Woodstock, the BF boys had lost six straight games and claimed only one victory in their previous nine games.
But Jan. 24, BF changed the script. With good defense and lots of three-pointers from an unexpected source, the Terriers pulled out a 63-55 win over the Wasps.
Sophomore guard Zac Streeter was the hero, with six threes for a career-high 20 points. “He's a kid that everybody knows can shoot the basketball, except for him,” said BF coach Evan Chadwick. “It was great to see the hard work pay off.”
Streeter supplemented a 21-point night from senior guard Kendrick Mills, who scored 12 points in the first half as BF clung to a 33-30 lead.
Chadwick implored his team to come out strong at the start of the third quarter, and the Terriers delivered - with a 12-4 run over the first four minutes of the second half. Streeter hit three 3-pointers, and Mills added another as BF finished the quarter with a 48-40 lead.
“With a good team like Woodstock, we couldn't give them any momentum,” said Chadwick. “We needed to contain them in those first four minutes of the third.”
Still, Woodstock rallied in the fourth and got to within one, 49-48, with just over six minutes left in the game. BF buckled down on defense and Streeter drilled the last of his six trifectas to give the Terriers breathing room.
Senior guard Brian McAnuff was the other Terrier in double figures with 11 points. Dougie Avellino led the Wasps with 22 points, while Connor Fegard added 14 and Dylan McDonough had 11.
BF came close to snapping the long losing streak on Jan. 21 in a 55-52 loss at Proctor. Dunbar scored 19 and Mills added 15 for the Terriers.
After the Woodstock win, the Terriers are now 3-8 and feeling a lot better about themselves.
“We've gone through some tough times,” said Chadwick, “but we got a good team effort tonight.”
Girls' basketball
• Brattleboro is testing out a new defense, a 2-3 press, and it worked out well for the Colonels against the Springfield Cosmos in a 58-35 win on Jan. 23 at the BUHS gym.
Arianna Harrison (17 points), Taylor Bird (11 points), and Abbie Lesure (10 points) were the key performers on defense, forcing numerous turnovers as the Colonels took a 31-19 lead at the half and cruised from there.
Springfield's Chelsea McAllister scored her 1,000th career point on the way to a 28-point night.
On Jan. 21, the Colonels traveled to Brandon and cruised to a 39-25 win over Otter Valley. Derosia and Harrison each scored 11 points. Harrison also had nine rebounds.
• Sammy Cunningham-Darrah scored 16 points, including three three-pointers, to lead Twin Valley to a 52-32 win on Jan. 20 over Leland & Gray. Savannah Nesbitt had 15 points, and Hannah Swanson dominated the boards with 20 rebounds. Rachel Borgenson led the Rebels with 15.
Nesbitt had 12 points, six assists, seven steals, four rebounds, and four blocks to lead Twin Valley to a 42-28 win over Mid-Vermont Christian on Jan. 22 in Wilmington. A 15-6 burst in the final quarter was the difference in the game. Swanson scored seven points and pulled down 10 rebounds for the Wildcats, while Kirra Courchesne had 11 points and five rebounds, and Colton Butler had eight rebounds and four blocks.
Cunningham-Darrah had 16 points and 10 rebounds to lead Twin Valley to a 52-32 win at Bellows Falls on Jan. 23. Butler added 14 points and seven rebounds. Chelsea Wilder scored 14 to lead the Terriers.
• Bellows Falls came up short against Fall Mountain, 53-32, in Langdon, N.H., on Jan. 21. Wilder led the Terriers with 11 points.
Boys' basketball
• Brattleboro faced two tough road games in Rutland last week.
On Jan. 21, the Colonels took on Rutland and got clobbered, 70-55. The Colonels only trailed by two, 33-31, with 3:40 left in the third, but Rutland's Patrick O'Rourke and Sam Brochu took over the game from there. Brochu finished with 22 points and nine rebounds, while O'Rourke had 17. Isaac Roach led the Colonels with 13.
The Colonels bounced back with a 72-45 win over Mount St. Joseph on Jan. 24. The Colonels finished the week at 7-4, but they only have two wins against against Division I competition.
• The Twin Valley train keeps rolling. They got a scare from Proctor on Jan. 24, but the undefeated Wildcats hung on for a 41-38 win. It was their 11th straight win.
• Woodstock blasted Leland & Gray, 75-30, on Jan. 21. Corey Nystrom scored a third of the Rebels' points with 10.
Hockey
• The Brattleboro boys snapped their losing streak with a 4-3 win over Mount Mansfield on Jan. 20 at Withington Rink. Cooper Turner-Renaud scored the game winner in the game's final minute. Braxton Lynn, Declan Lonergan, and Jon Curtis also scored goals and Evan Perkins had a pair of assists.
The Colonels followed up that effort with a 3-3 tie at Lyndon Institute on Jan. 22.
Tom Raech, Dave Peters and Danica Norcross each scored to give the Vikings a 3-0 lead after two periods. Brattleboro then rallied in the third period, getting two of the three goals just six seconds apart, to earn the draw. Curtis scored twice, and Lonergan also got a goal. Greg DiSilva made 11 saves in goal as Brattleboro improved to 4-8-1. Lyndon goalie Deryck Colburn made 50 saves.
• The Brattleboro girls are looking for their second win of the season. On Jan 18, the Colonels lost 3-1 at home to Hartford.
They traveled to Middlebury on Jan. 24 and got shut out, 8-0, to fall to 1-10 on the season. Eight different Middlebury players scored - Harper Smith, Julia Carone, Monroe Cromis, Sara Boe, Mikayla Humiston, Rachel Howlett, Tajah Marsden, and Alli White. Goalie Baily Ryan needed to make only two saves for win.
All three of Brattleboro's goalies - Alex Fellows, Grace Willingham, and Keagan Jamieson - got time between the pipes and combined to stop 36 shots.