Windsor
Windsor, which led, 24-8, at the half, couldn’t get it going in the second half as the Chieftains cut their deficit to 30-27 with 4:49 to go. It was at this point that Bigwood took over, scoring six points down the stretch as the Jacks held on.
Rockwood needed eight points to get to 1,000, and those points didn’t come easily or quickly. Green Mountain coach Terry Farrell put guard Paige Karl on Rockwood, who saw little room to shoot, and the eighth point didn’t come until there was 2:18 to play in the first half.
She finished the night with 13 points on a 4-for-22 shooting effort and fouled out with 3:18 to play.
“Less pressure from now on,” she said amid the back-slappers after the game.
In Rockwood’s defense, Karl is a very talented athlete and a two-time first team all-stater on the soccer team.
“She’s quick,” said Farrell, who was a bit perplexed with his team, which had just two field goals in the first half.
“We’re like a deer in the headlights here,” Farrell said. “Just like last year, we come over here and didn’t play well then, (but) we beat them at our place.”
Karl said she knew she had her hands full when she found out what her duties were going to be.
“She’s such a good player,” she said of Rockwood. “I’m proud of the way we came back after that first half.”
It was the second game for both teams, and for Windsor it was the second time the defending state champs nearly stumbled, following a close shave in the season opener against Thetford.
“We could be 0-2,” Windsor coach Bruce Mackay said. “Fortunately, we played good defense, because Green Mountain put the pressure on us in the second half.”
The fourth quarter started with a 28-17 Windsor lead. At that point, the Chiefs went on a 10-2 run fueled by four three throws from 5-foot-10 Hannah Buffum, who was 10-for-10 from the foul line on the night.
Her final two free throws were followed by a Maya Lewis drive, and what looked like an easy night for the Jacks was suddenly a tight 30-27 game with plenty of time left.
Bigwood, who had only two free throws to show for her night’s efforts at that point, put on her hero’s cape and went to work. She drove the lane twice, offsetting a Rachel Guerra basket for the Chiefs to make it 34-29 with still 4:14 to go. Neither team scored for more than three minutes before Bigwood dropped in a short one-hander with 1:10 to play to put a lock on the game.
Buffum ended as the night’s top scorer with 14 points.
These teams combined for 32 wins last season.
The score was only 4-2 for Windsor with 3:28 to play in the first quarter and 9-2 after the period, with Green Mountain’s points coming on two free throws.
Windsor will host Mill River on Monday. Twin Valley comes to Green Mountain on Tuesday.