Colonels bolt past Springfield, 70-40

Before the game with Brattleboro Saturday Springfield coach Pete Peck was saying that his team needed to win three of its last four to get a home game in the first round of the Division II tourney.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=01002070338                  # # # # Colonels bolt past Springfield, 70-40 By POODY WALSH Rutland Herald Correspondent - Published: February 7, 2010 SPRINGFIELD — Before the game with Brattleboro Saturday Springfield coach Pete Peck was saying that his team needed to win three of its last four to get a home game in the first round of the Division II tourney. Now it's three out of three as the Colonels used a 28-point second quarter as a springboard to a 70-40 win at Dressel gym. While winning all three games may seem a heavy workload for the Cosmos, the schedule maker the rest of the way has been helpful as Springfield closes out with Woodstock, Bellows Falls and Windsor. "Those are all winnable games," Peck said. The loss dropped Springfield to 8-9. At game time they were in10th place in the statewide standings. Brattleboro is cruising along at 13-4 and has a big Division I showdown game at Rutland on Thursday. It was the second time the Colonels have beaten the Cosmos this winter. Brattleboro was a 78-60 winner in the first meeting. While the Colonels had the impressive second quarter to take control of the game, they found the opening minutes troublesome as Springfield took an 8-1 lead and held a 10-5 advantage at the end of one period. "We had a hard time finding our sea legs at the beginning," Brattleboro coach Joe Rivers said. However, the Colonels got their transition game going and scored points in bunches to take a 33-18 lead at the half. "We were aware that Springfield can play this game and they were taking our transition game away from us," Rivers said. "Fortunately we have a lot of players and we finally get everything going." And it was impressive once the Colonels figure everything out as 6-foot-5 Adam Boyle led the transition game with a big day on the boards and got loads of help from Dan Freeman and Eli Knowles on the fast break. Rivers was also happy with the play of sophomore Tommy Heydinger who came off the bench to score a team-high 14 points. "We have a lot of players we can turn to," added Rivers. Brattleboro got the first 12 points of the second quarter as Heydinger led the charge with two put-back hoops and a jumper. Boyle added two more hoops from in close and in less than two minutes the Colonels went from a 10-5 deficit to a 17-10 lead. "They have quickness that is hard for us to match," Peck said. "We're not playing particularly well right now." Springfield was playing well early as Brandon Boyle had eight first period points and Colonels were missing enabling the Cosmos to take the early advantage. "And we could have done better, but we missed a lot of shots," Peck said. Springfield got a 3-pointer from Derek Graham and jumper from Ethan McAllister early in the third period to make it a 35-23 game, but the Colonels went on a 10-2 run and it was quickly a 45-25 game. Boyle finished with 19 points, but was the only Cosmo in double figures. In addition to Heydinger's 14, points the Colonels had three others in double figures as Freeman had 12, Knowles 10 and Boyle 10. Woodstock comes to Springfield on Monday.