Springfield, Vt.
There was a time this season when the Vermont high school basketball world wondered what was going with a Windsor team that dropped seven straight games after a season-opening victory. After all, playing winning basketball in Windsor has been a given for a long time.
All appears well now. Monday’s win was the Yellowjackets’ fifth in their last six starts, inching them closer to the .500 mark at 6-8.
Junior guard Dakota Page has helped spark the Jacks’ revival. For a 5-foot-10 guy, Page plays much bigger with endless energy, and he can both drive the lane and shoot the 3-pointer.
“He’s good every night,” said Windsor coach Harry Ladue, who also credited sophomore Robbie Slocum with showing great progress. “I don’t worry much when I call him off the bench.”
Windsor is a very young team, with only one senior starter, that is getting it all together as the season heads to tourney time.
“Everything’s kind of coming together,” Ladue said. “Tonight I thought we did a good job of limiting their shots while we passed the ball well and had a lot of good looks. It was a nice game for us.”
Monday night’s win also came against a Springfield squad that has not won a game since December 2015. However, there was an inkling that the Cosmos were getting better after competitive games with Fall Mountain (54-44) and Leland and Gray (53-49).
“This was a step back tonight,” admitted Springfield coach Mike Ruppel.
All of the boys sports teams at Springfield have been in a tailspin for several years. Ruppel thinks his basketball team is continuing to improve, however, even though scoring and handling the pressure has slowed the progress.
“We have to be more patient on offense,” Ruffel explained. “We know Windsor is going to apply pressure defense, and when we did get the ball up the court, we shot right away. We have to be patient to get the good shot.”
Lost in the one-sided game was the effort of Springfield senior Caleb Hunter, who had five 3-pointers in a 22-point night. Unfortunately, no other Springfield player had more than six points.
There was never any doubt as to the outcome, with the Jacks holding leads of 36-16 at the half and 59-27 after three quarters.
Windsor, which has been raining in threes lately, had eight more against the Cosmos, four from Slocum.
Ladue, like most coaches, can look at a game like this and still find some things that need attention.
“We need to rebound better,” he said.
In all, 10 different Windsor players scored.
The Jacks have a home makeup game with Leland and Gray on Wednesday night. Springfield goes to Hartford on Thursday.
Notes: The 2016 state champion Springfield field hockey team received jackets during a halftime ceremony that also honored the 1986 state champs. Four Windsor High athletes were part of last fall’s championship effort.