http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20111230/SPORTS/712309829
Published December 30, 2011 in the Rutland Herald
Springfield girls, Rebs boys wear Green Mountain crowns
By POODY WALSH
CORRESPONDENT
CHESTER — The Springfield girls continued to be an early-season surprise as the Cosmos moved to 5-0 with a 43-33 win over Twin Valley in the Green Mountain Holiday Tournament championship game Thursday night at Nason Gym.
In the boys final it was Leland & Gray over Twin Valley 54-29 while in the consolation games it was Mount St. Josephover Green Mountain in the girls consy that went two overtimes, 77-74. In the boys consolation game Springfield, after tailing most of the game, rallied late to top Green Mountain 38-34.
In the Springfield girls final the Cosmos broke away from a 11-11 first quarter to outscore the Wildcats 10-2 in the second period and were never threatened.
“We just don’t match up them,” said Twin Valley coach Buddy Hayford.“We had no answer to their size.”
When talking about size Hayford was making reference to Springfield’s 6-footcenter Morgan Johnson, who paced all scorers with 18 points.
“We just struggle rebounding,” added Hayford. “You can’t coach height.”
First-year Springfield coach Chris Brown had some worries as his team was short-handed for several reasons, but in the end he was pretty happy.
“You know we had to make some adjustments,” Brown said, “And some of the lack of experience on our bench was much in evidence in that first quarter as we struggled. However, the intensity was there and we got great games from Morgan Johnson and Sarah Gray.”
Chelsea McAllister, Springfield’s slick point guard, also continued to impress as the freshman ran the offense and dropped in 13 points.
Twin Valley was also hampered by the loss of sophomore Jordan Niles, who went down in the first quarter with what looked like a serious wrist injury and was taken to the hospital.
“She had 22 points for us just a couple of games back,” Hayford said. “I hope she’s not hurt bad.”
The loss left Twin Valley at 4-2.
That Springfield height resulted in a 42-28 edge on the boards.
Like the Twin Valley boys, the Twin Valley girls were tied after one period, but by the half they fell in a 26-16 hole. And it got worse in the second half as Leland & Gray pitched a 17-0 shutout in the third quarter, giving the Rebels a commanding 43-16 lead after three quarters.
Leland & Gray advanced to 3-2 with the win while Twin Valley fell to 1-4.
Robert Culver, with 13 points, and Brandon Reilly, with 11, paced the Rebels while Cade Nesbitt had 12 for Twin Valley.
The Wildcats stayed in the game for a while in the second period, trailing just 13-12 with six minutes left, but were outscored 41-17 the rest of the way.
Way to go girls!! Springfield....where the men are men and the women are champions!!
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