Thetford
Colby — a former Chelsea High School star now playing for Thetford Academy — scored his 1,000th career varsity point early in the fourth quarter of Thetford’s 55-46 loss to Montpelier at Vaughan Gymnasium on Saturday. He entered the game 10 points away from the career milestone, becoming the Panthers’ ninth male athlete in school history — and second in the calendar — to reach the century mark.
“He brings quite a bit,” said third-year Thetford head coach Jason Gray, a 1,000-point scorer himself during his playing days with the Panthers. “He’s a good defender; he can shoot the ball. He’s just an all-around athletic kid that can play basketball. He lives for basketball. You can’t teach that.”
Colby finished the game with a team-high 12 points in the loss. Dylan Thorburn, who graduated from Thetford last spring, scored his 1,000th point with the team in March.
“I would say they’re a little different,” Gray said. “Dylan was much more likely to slash through the lane. Jake can do that, but he likes to pull up for jump shots. … He actually fits in really well. He’s getting buckets.”
The milestone was a positive in an otherwise down night for Gray’s squad. The Panthers (2-2) missed its first four opportunities to score and couldn’t dig itself out of an early hole. Montpelier led, 27-18, at halftime and outscored Thetford, 20-18, in the fourth quarter.
“Right of the gate,” Gray said. “We got off to a slow start. It’s really hard to come back like that to a team that likes to stall the ball really well.”
Owen Deffner finished with eight points and Seth Boyce contributed seven for Thetford (2-2), which travels to Windsor on Saturday.
Correction
Thetford Academy’s Jake Colby, a senior transfer from the former Chelsea High School, scored his 1,000th career point in a boys basketball loss to Montpelier on Saturday. A photo of another player was incorrectly identified as Colby in an earlier version of this story.