BARRE, Vt. — Ross Convertino knew that if his Rivendell Academy boys basketball team ever lost a game this season, it would be because of self-inflicted wounds.
In Monday night’s VPA Division IV semifinal against Blue Mountain at Barre Auditorium, that was exactly what happened.
The top-seeded Raptors led by 13 after a quarter, by 11 at halftime and by seven with just over a minute to go. But they couldn’t put the fourth-seeded Bucks away, and Blue Mountain took its first lead of the night on a layup with 2.9 seconds left to stun Rivendell, 43-42.
“We didn’t play smart with the lead,” Convertino said. “We had done so well all year, and what we’d done all year, we just suddenly couldn’t execute here. Funny things happen in this building, and here’s a perfect example. We were the better team, but we didn’t play that way.”
The Raptors (19-1) held the Bucks without a field goal in the first quarter, leading 14-1 after eight minutes. Blue Mountain scored seven straight late in the first half to pull within single digits, but it still appeared to be Rivendell’s game until the Bucks opened the second half on a 10-2 run to make it a three-point affair.
Senior guard Kyle Carter, the Raptors’ leading scorer who reached 1,000 career points late in the regular season, scored 11 in the first half but rested for much of the third. He got hot again early in the fourth, though, hitting from 3-point range on back-to-back possessions to restore the lead to nine. It became 10, at 39-29, when senior guard Garrett Stever laid it in off a beautiful give-and-go.
“Instead of playing smart, we tried to put the dagger in them,” Convertino said. “It backfired on us.”
Rivendell’s lead was 40-33 before Blue Mountain senior Jacob Dube’s 3-pointer made it a four-point game with 1:13 left. Instead of running the clock, the Raptors tried to get a quick bucket on their next possession, which ended in a bad pass turnover. Evan Dennis, who led the Bucks with 13 points, made a put-back layup on Blue Mountain’s next trip down the floor to make it a one-score game.
Without a shot clock, the Bucks were forced to foul, and junior Harrison Molesworth split a pair of free throws to put Rivendell back up three. But Molesworth then fouled John Dennis as he was shooting a 3-pointer, and Dennis made all three foul shots to tie the game. Blue Mountain was 10-for-13 from the free throw line while the Raptors were just 12-for-25.
““(The lead) was 11 at half. It should have been 20-plus,” Convertino said. “We let them stay within striking distance, and we didn’t play smart defensively or offensively. We didn’t do much right in the second half.”
The Bucks got the ball back down one, and John Dennis buried a pump-fake layup to complete the comeback. Carter, who led all scorers with 18, had a decent look from beyond the arc at the buzzer, but could not get it to fall.
Rivendell graduates seniors Carter, Stever, Chris Pierce, Jameson Gilbert and Wyatt Underhill. It’s a group that reached the semifinals in 2020 and won at least one postseason game each year. But the sudden ending to it all will certainly be bittersweet.
“We’ve had a target on our back for the last month, and we succeeded in treating every game like a one and done, trying to stay perfect,” Convertino said. “We felt we were experienced and could handle it, and we were — up until the second half tonight.”
Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.