Local Roundup: TSA Earns Road Playoff Victory

West Rutland, Vt. — A sharpshooting flurry to open the second half helped the Sharon Academy boys basketball team to a 59-45 victory at No. 8 West Rutland to open the Vermont Division IV playoffs on Tuesday night.

The Phoenix, normally reliant on strong play in the frontcourt, erupted for 20 points in the third quarter to take a 42-35 lead.

“We hit four 3-pointers in a span of two minutes, which is not normally our style,” Sharon coach Blake Fabrikant said. “I think that kind of shocked them out of their zone (defense). Once they went to man, our height advantage took over.”

Sharon trailed, 26-22, at halftime and then outscored the Golden Horde, 37-19, in the second half. The hosts made six 3-pointers in the first half before the Sharon defense tightened things up after the break.

Sam Knoerlein led Sharon with 16 points. Harvey Kelley had 14, Billy Connelli had 12 and Cordell Benjamin chipped in 10 points. The Phoenix shot 16-for-24 from the free-throw line while the hosts managed just one point from the charity stripe.

“The first half was back and forth,” Fabrikant said. “It was a battle of contrasting styles. At halftime, I told the guys to just let the game come to them.”

Sharon will play the winner of tonight’s first round game between No. 16 seed Chelsea and top-seeded Twinfield on Friday night at 7 p.m.

Hanover 48, Bishop Brady 40

Hanover — Charlie Adams went 9-for-10 from the free- throw line in the fourth quarter to help the Marauders (8-12 overall, 7-10 NHIAA) hang on against the Green Giants.

Hanover took control in the third quarter thanks to a scoring outburst from Benny Gantrish. The senior sharpshooter had four 3-pointers in the quarter, and finished with seven total from beyond the arc on his way to 21 points.

“That was kind of the difference-maker for us,” Hanover coach Tim Winslow said. “We led, 21-16, at halftime and then by 15 into the fourth.”

Adams finished with 13 points. Hanover visits John Stark on Thursday.

Woodsville 53, Lisbon 40

Woodsville — The No. 2 seed Engineers had all they could handle in the first round of the New Hampshire D-IV playoffs against the visiting Panthers.

Garrett Olsen led Woodsville (19-2 overall, 18-1 NHIAA) with 18 points. Cooper Davidson added 14, and Sam Pushee had 12. Woodsville led, 25-12, at halftime before the Panthers staged a second-half comeback, pulling to within four points midway through the fourth quarter.

“We’ll need to play better (going forward),” Woodsville coach Jamie Walker said.

The Engineers will host Colebrook on Friday at 7 p.m. in the quarterfinals.

Lake Region 74Thetford 67 (OT)

Barton, Vt. — Lawson Ouellette hit a game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer to force overtime, but foul trouble helped spell the end for the upset-minded No. 12 seed Panthers in a first-round Vermont D-III tournament loss to the No. 5 seed Rangers.

Lake Region played an aggressive brand of offense, which led to a 46-14 edge in free throw attempts. Four Panthers starters, and five players overall, fouled out. Riley Wie had 44 points for Lake Region, 24 of which came from the free-throw line.

“We put them on their heels. We didn’t bow our heads (despite the foul trouble) and fought all the way through,” first-year Thetford coach Jason Gray said. “Everybody stayed with it; the bench was right in it. You take away the fouls, and it could have been a different game. I’m very happy with the guys.”

Ouellette finished with five 3-pointers on his way to 16 points. Dylan Thorburn led Thetford with 17 points. Connor Brown added 14 and Noah Perry had 12. Neither team sustained any big lead throughout, and Thetford forced overtime with a 23-point fourth quarter to knot the score at 61-61 at the end of regulation.

Derryfield 62, Mount Royal 20

Manchester — The Knights’ first varsity season ended with a loss in the first round of the New Hampshire D-IV playoffs but was nonetheless a success, according to coach Matt McMenaman.

“We set a goal to make the playoffs and achieved that goal,” McMenaman said. “I’m proud of my guys. I think we played tough and learned a lot along the way.”

Senior Gus LaRose had 11 points for Mount Royal. The other Mount Royal seniors are Matthew McMenaman and Kealan Vasquez.

U-32 62, Woodstock 36

East Montpelier, Vt. — The Wasps (6-15) saw their season end in the Vermont D-II playoffs with a loss to the host Raiders.

Caleb Webb had 16 points for Woodstock. Jack Arthur had three 3-pointers and finished with 11 points. Arthur, Bill Wood and Oscar Montano are the graduating seniors for the Wasps.

Girls Basketball

Rivendell 40, Twinfield 17

Plainfield, Vt. — The Raptors scored 21 points in the third quarter to break open a low-scoring game and improve to 13-6.

Mikayla DeBois led Rivendell with 14 points and eight rebounds. Riley Thomson added 12 points. Casey Ghio added eight rebounds. Freshman Mikayla Stever returned after missing a game due to a concussion and had six points.

The Raptors outscored Twinfield, 32-7, in the second half. Rivendell visits Blue Mountain on Thursday.

Windsor 58, Springfield 31

Windsor — Freshman Olivia Rockwood had 19 points to lead the Jacks (16-3) over the Cosmos.

Point guard Ashleay Wilcox added 16 points and had a great game distributing the ball, according to coach Bruce Mackay. Yvette Gray added 11 points, including three 3-pointers. The Jacks took control early, building a 30-11 lead at halftime.

Windsor visits Fair Haven for its regular-season finale on Thursday night.

Lebanon 53, Kennett 18

Lebanon — Freshman Rebecca Wright had 26 points, 24 in the first half, to lead the Raiders in a blowout to open the New Hampshire D-II playoffs.

Wright played just 15 minutes while racking up her game-high point total. The Raiders finished with 23 field goals and had 19 assists, much to the delight of coach Tim Kehoe.

“We shared the ball, moved the ball well and ran the offense,” Kehoe said. “For a freshman (Wright) to score 26 in a tournament game, that’s really impressive.”

Maddie Hastings and Joslin Wainwright each had eight assists for Lebanon. Wainwright added eight points. Hastings and Anna Wolke each had six points. The Raiders led, 41-10, at halftime.

Lebanon (21-1 overall, 19-0 NHIAA) hosts Kingswood in the quarterfinals on Friday at 7 p.m.

Sharon 36, MVCS 26

Quechee — Grace Dorman (14 points) and Mallory Lloyd (12 points) paced the Phoenix over the Eagles.

Sydney Goodwin and Rachel Seale each had seven points for MVCS. Danyelle Goodwin and Emily Jasmin each had six points. The Eagles shot just 5-for-19 from the free-throw line.

MVCS (7-10) closes the regular season at home against Whitcomb-Rochester on Thursday. Sharon (8-10) closes the regular season with a pair of home games, Thursday against Twinfield and Saturday against Blue Mountain. One win in the final two games should secure a home game for the Phoenix to open the Vermont D-IV playoffs.

MSJ 41, Woodstock 15

Woodstock — The Mounties led, 21-5, at halftime and dropped the Wasps to 7-11 on the season.

“MSJ is really good. They’re very solid defensively and don’t make a lot of mistakes. We did a better job in the second half moving the basketball and had some better looks,” Woodstock coach Timmy MacDonnell said.

Mariah Luce led the Wasps with six points. Woodstock closes the regular season with home games against Leland & Gray on Thursday and Springfield on Saturday.

Otter Valley 31, Hartford 25

Brandon, Vt. — The Otters held Hartford to seven points in the second half, dropping the Canes to 7-12 on the season.

Corey Lieberman led Hartford with seven points. The Canes will close the regular season at home on senior night against Springfield on Thursday.

Girls Hockey

Hartford 4North Country-Lyndon 3 (OT)

White River Junction — Caitlin Gaudet scored the game-winner 1:17 into overtime to lift the Canes in the first round of the Vermont D-II playoffs.

Hartford led, 3-1, at the end of an action-packed first period. North Country scored first just seconds into the action. Jasmine Wilson answered for the Canes 30 seconds later, scoring with an assist to Emily Ballou to knot things up at 1-1. Gaudet and Kendyl Boisvert added goals later in the period.

The visitors remained stymied by the Hartford defense, anchored by goalie Maggie Gilman (16 saves) until scoring a pair of third-period goals. The game-tying strike came with just 40 seconds left in regulation.

Lauren Miller and Morgan Fisk assisted on Gaudet’s game-winning goal. Miller had an earlier assist and Cecilia Spaulding also had one helper. The Canes (5-12-4) will play at top-ranked Rice on Friday at 6 p.m. in the quarterfinals.

Men’s Lacrosse

Dartmouth 11, Vermont 9

Hanover — Led by five goals from junior Richie Loftus and five assists by senior Wiley Osborne, Dartmouth (1-2) earned its first win of the season with a victory over Vermont (3-2).

All but one of Loftus’ goals were set up by Osborne, who ended the day with five points. Freshman Harlan Smart had one goal and two assists, sophomore Cameron Nolting had a hat trick and two other Dartmouth players walked away with a point apiece.

Freshman George Christopher made 17 saves en route to picking up his first career win.

The Big Green outshot the Catamounts, 45-39, and grabbed 39 ground balls, one more than Vermont.

Dartmouth will spend almost all of March on the road with a trio of non-conference games, starting with a tilt against Wagner on Saturday.

Men’s Golf

Green Finishes S.C. Stop

Hilton Head, s.c. — The Big Green finished its final day at the Wexford Plantation Intercollegiate tournament on Tuesday with a combined score of 936 to place 17th.

Gardner-Webb bested the 18-team field after completing the day 5 over par as a team on the par-72 course for a final total of 882. Winthrop was four strokes back.

Senior Sean Fahey led Dartmouth, shooting an even-par final round and tying for 54th for the tournament at 16-over 232.

Dartmouth will be back in action next month as they return to South Carolina at the end of March for the Furman Invitational in Greenville.