The Leland & Gray Rebels hammered the Twin Valley Wildcats, 77-20, to win the championship game in the Green Mountain Holiday Tournament on Dec. 30 in Chester.
Matt Bizon led a balanced attack with 10 points, 6 assists and 7 steals. Drew Barnum and Noah Chapin each scored 9 points and Josh Fontaine pulled down 12 rebounds and made 5 blocks.
In the opening games of the GM tourney on Dec. 29, the Rebels beat Mount Everett of Sheffield, Mass., 59-38, while Twin Valley beat Green Mountain, 45-39. Chapin was the top scorer for the Rebels with 15 points, while Fontaine had 12 points, 13 rebounds, and 7 blocks. Ian Murdock led the Wildcats with 16 points while Troy Birch had 12 points and 17 rebounds.
The 4-1 Rebels are off until their home opener on Tuesday, Jan. 11, against Proctor. The 1-3 Wildcats travel to Bellows Falls on Jan. 6.
Boys basketball
• Brattleboro ended December with three straight wins to improve to 5-1. On Dec. 28, the Colonels rolled to a 45-25 victory over Hartford. Nate Forrett had 16 points and 10 rebounds to lead Brattleboro, while Tommy Heydinger added 10 points and 10 rebounds.
The Colonels pulled out a 67-66 win over the Conant Orioles in Jaffrey, N.H., on Dec. 23. Travis Elliott-Knaggs led the Colonels with 17 points, while Heydinger scored 16 and Travis Beeman-Nesbitt tallied 14.
Brattleboro also crushed St. Johnsbury, 57-24, at the BUHS gym on Dec. 20. Beeman-Nesbitt led the way with 14 points.
• Drew Guild buried a three-pointer with 10 seconds left in the game to give the Bellows Falls Terriers a 46-44 victory over Leland & Gray at Holland Gymnasium on Dec. 20. Chris Goldschmidt led BF with 14 points. Bizon led the Rebels with 17.
Girls basketball
• Brattleboro lost at home to Wahconah, 58-53, on Dec. 21. Mariah Lesure was the Colonels' high scorer with nine points.
The Colonels then got their first win of the season on Dec. 23 with a 47-42 home victory over Windsor. Mary Richardson and Erin LeBlanc each scored 12 points; LeBlanc also had 10 rebounds and 9 steals. Point guard Taylor Kerylow contributed 7 points, 5 assists and 4 steals.
Brattleboro's second straight win came on Dec. 30, as the Colonels avenged a season-opening road loss to St. Johnsbury with a 25-17 home win over the Hilltoppers. The Colonels played excellent defense in shutting down the defending state champs.
• Twin Valley got its first win on the season on Dec. 20 with a 50-28 road win over West Rutland. Kylie-blu Crawford led the Wildcats with 14 points and Sam Bernard had 11 points, 11 rebounds, and 5 steals.
The Wildcats followed up that effort with a 47-17 thrashing of the Bellows Falls Terriers in Wilmington on Dec. 23. Great pressure defense by Twin Valley virtually shut down the Terriers in the first half as TV led 31-4 at the break.
Bryer-lyn Crawford and Savannah Nesbitt led the Wildcats with 11 points each. Bernard had 6 points and 12 rebounds while Abbi Molner had 7 rebounds. Bellows Falls, which had lost at Springfield, 52-24, on Dec. 20, was led by Megan LaBeau and Sarah Dumont, who each had 4 points.
The Wildcats then played in the Green Mountain Holiday Tournament in Chester. Host team Green Mountain won the opening game, 55-47, on Dec. 28. Kylie-blu Crawford led the Wildcats with 14 points. The following night, TV lost in the consolation game, 47-21, to Mount Everett. Bernard led the way with 12 points and nine rebounds.
• Bellows Falls struggled as the host team in the Terriers Booster Club Girls Holiday Tournament. BF lost the opener to Arlington, 54-23, on Dec. 28, and lost the consolation game to Stevens, 55-30, the following evening to end the first month of the season with a 0-5 record.
• Defensive pressure by Green Mountain forced 26 turnovers as the Chieftains defeated the Leland & Gray Rebels in Townshend, 51-38, on Dec. 22. Bethany Robinson scored 14 points and Ashley Goddard had 9 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Rebels. Alex Morrow finished with 10 rebounds and a couple of blocked shots.
Robinson got the winning basket for Leland & Gray in a 26-25 win over Fair Haven on Dec. 20. Aly Marcucci was the top scorer with 14 points, and Morrow and Goddard each had 10 rebounds.
Girls hockey
• Maddie Rollins scored four goals as the Brattleboro Colonels completed the season sweep of Woodstock in a 7-0 rout of the Wasps on Dec. 22 at Nelson Withington Rink. Emily Wilson added two goals and Logan Robinson also scored.
The Colonels' game on Dec. 27 against Harwood got snowed out and will be made up at a later date. Brattleboro will be back in action on Jan. 5 against Burr & Burton at Withington Rink.
Boys' hockey
• The Brattleboro Colonels were winless in the Middlebury Tournament last week, but finally got their first win, in Springfield, Mass., on Dec. 30 with a 7-2 victory over Springfield Central. Andy Harris had two goals, and Logan George, Joey Maillett, Jamie Martell, Nik Rancourt and Adam Griffin each added a goal. Griffin and Philip Perkins each had two assists.
Now 1-4, the Colonels travel to Hartford on Jan. 5.
Nordic skiing
• It took until Dec. 23 for the Brattleboro Colonels to get their first Marble Valley League race in, and even then, they had to travel north to Mountain Top Resort when the event was truncated to a team sprint relay.
The Colonel girls entered three relay teams, and the A team that featured Linnea Jahn and Halie Lange took second place. The B team of Leah Silverman and Emma Straus came in sixth, and the C team of Helen Manning, Katie Grasso, and Kara Piergentilli finished 14th.
The Colonel boys fielded two relay teams. Graham Glennon and Jacob Ellis skied on the BUHS A team and finished eighth out of 18 teams. The B team of Anthony Burdo, Noah Borochoff-Porte, and Sam Green came in 12th.