Bethel
Whether he wants to admit it or not, the South Royalton School boys basketball team revolves around the senior this season thanks to his combination of accuracy from distance, bravery in pushing through defenses and a willingness to sling passes to teammates. In 12 months since being eliminated from the Vermont Division IV semifinals at the Barre Auditorium, the Royals have returned to the hardwood on a mission powered by their one-man wrecking crew.
It was the kind of performance that Whitcomb High, which hadn’t played since Dec. 21, was utterly unprepared for.
Howe went off for 35 points as South Royalton dominated the rebuilding Hornets, 69-33, at Whitcomb High on Thursday in a game that was never close. The Royals (4-1) led 38-8 at halftime as Whitcomb, under first-year head coach Jaren Jeffcoat, had no answer for South Royalton’s high-speed tempo.
“I’m trying to stay as humble as I can, but my confidence is definitely a lot higher (this season),” Howe said. “Out of all my four years, this is probably the most confidence I’ve had.”
The Hornets (1-3) managed only a 3-pointer from Zak Gillette in the first quarter to snap an early 6-0 run by the Royals. The visitors then reeled off 28 straight points over a span of 10 minutes, 4 seconds before back-to-back baskets by Colby and Taylor Washburn gave the Whitcomb auditorium some life with 2:56 left in the half.
And then, on the next drive, Howe had the emphatic answer. He stepped up, shifted the ball behind his back from right to left, stepped back and nailed a basket for a 36-7 cushion.
“(Howe is coming out of his shell) in more ways than just points,” said Peter Howe, SoRo’s coach and Nicholas’ dad. “We lost 30 points (a game) last year through graduation; Jake (Kinnarney) and William (Wuttke) made up 28 points between them. Nicholas, by himself, has made up half of that on his own. But he’s also showing a lot of maturity on the court, in timeouts and in the locker room. I’m proud of him for that.
“I don’t care about the points,” he added. “I care about him as a young man. It’s tough as a father being his coach and trying to separate the two, but seeing his maturity, I’m liking it. It looks like he’s having a little bit more fun.”
South Royalton underwent a significant transition in the offseason, losing Kinnarney, last year’s leading scorer (16.3 points per game), inside presence Wuttke (13.4 points per game) and defensive specialist McKinley George to graduation. Peter Howe met with his son and Dalton McDougall in the offseason to lay the groundwork for their roles on this year’s team.
It was a message that the younger Howe took to heart. No longer hidden behind a plethora of prolific scorers, his play could shine through.
“Last year, we lost two big key factors for our team,” Nicholas Howe said. “This year, I knew I had to step it up both on the court and off the court. Being a leader, I’m trying to pass the ball and get everyone involved. It is a team sport; that’s the thing my father praises a lot. Over the summer, working on my game, I just think I’ve gotten better so that I can find easier ways to score.”
The challenge for Peter Howe, at least this season, is finding secondary scoring from his team. Senior McDougall, averaging 6.5 points in his team’s first five games, is an option, as is sophomore Jake Hewitt and freshman Zeb Perreault. But with Nicholas Howe averaging a whopping 31 points per game, it’s hard to game plan against the hot hand.
That is, until opposing teams start catching on.
“We just need to make sure we have other guys stepping up to the plate,” Peter Howe said. “When he has the ball, you never know when you’re going to get it. If nothing else, that’s their motivation. … This team is only as good as the nine players. We’re not focused on any one player. I’m waiting for the night where some team doubles him up. He’s just going to sit in a corner and stand there, because we have four other guys who can contribute.”
McDougall finished the game with 10 points for the royals.
As for Whitcomb, Jeffcoat maintained that his team is still a work in progress. The Hornets are looking for their first winning season since 2005-06 and hope that Jeffcoat, a former 1,000-point scorer at Norwich University and son of former NFL defensive end Jim Jeffcoat, can help turn the program back in the right direction.
Inside man Colby Washburn led the way with 12 points for Whitcomb. Aside from that, however, the long layoff and Howe’s dominance proved too much.
“It is a wake-up call in a way,” Jeffcoat said after the game. “We’ve had two games cancelled (in the past three weeks). … It got to the point where the guys just lost focus because they weren’t playing. This will be a wake-up call in that sense. But I think they also realize they are still working to improve and get better.”
Peter Howe has a similar message for his team, pointing to the Royals’ only loss this season, an 86-42 defeat to Hazen on Dec. 30, as proof that his group still has work to do.
“We focus on the process,” he said. “We still had 24 turnovers, so that’s something that we have to clean up. They were silly mistakes. The first half we were making weak passes; the second half we weren’t paying attention. It’s hard, in games like this, to stay focused.”
But South Royalton’s best player is riding high with the confidence and the skill to carry his team back to the Aud.
“Before every game, I’m trying to get all the guys into it,” Howe said. “As myself, I’m just trying to stay calm because I know it’s all coming on me. I need to run the offense. … But I don’t want it to all fall on me. I want to get everyone involved.”
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.