http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20120217/SPORTS02/702179902
Published February 17, 2012 in the Rutland Herald
Energized Slaters roll past Springfield
By Tom Haley
STAFF WRITER
FAIR HAVEN — Some might have expected a dogfight for Thursday night’s boys basketball game between Springfield and Fair Haven. After all, the Slaters had to battle to get out of Springfield with a 57-54 victory earlier in the season and Springfield had just fashioned the best win on its resume a couple of games ago, a win over Burr and Burton Academy.
But the Slaters tore that script up in a hurry. They got out to a 12-3 lead in the first quarter and coasted from there to a 71-29 win.
What’s more, the Slaters are without starter Dakota Euber who broke his foot in practice.
Levi Ellis had the Cosmos on alert all night as he consistently intercepted passes and turned them into layups. He finished with 23 points and received warm applause from the Slater fans when he came out of the game with 4:34 remaining.
He had plenty of help. Robert Coloutti snared rebounds at will at 6-foot-3 with the smallish Cosmos having no answer for him. He also scored 14 points. Andrew Reid added 11 points and Alex Fontaine nine.
“We really came out with a lot of energy,” Ellis said. “We had been playing with energy in the first two periods, but tonight we kept it up the whole game.
“And we shot the ball really well tonight.”
Ellis said the team is going to have to fill the void created by Euber’s absence.
“Dakota is athletic and gets a lot of rebounds for us. Our other bigs like Fontaine are going to have to step up for us. All of our bigs are going to have to step up.”
“It was a great win for us,” Fair Haven coach Bob Prenevost said. He admitted the team is different without Euber.
“The bench is a little bit shorter and the rotation will be a little bit different,” the coach said.
“But Alex Fontaine has come along and now Matt Graziano is coming along.”
The Slaters are 10-8.
The Cosmos fall to 6-12 and coach Pete Peck said the remaining games against Hartford and Leland & Gray are important for the team’s seed in the Division II playoffs.
“They could mean the difference between being a No. 15 or a No. 11 seed,” Peck said.
Now, he’ll try to have his charges regroup and hope their psyche is right for those final two contests.
“We have been playing really well. We had a big week by beating Windsor and Burr and Burton. We didn’t expect to come in here and get steamrolled.”
Aaron Wallace and Kirk Perham led the Cosmos with eight points apiece. Devin Brady and Mike Muther added five each as the Cosmos just could not get untracked offensively.
Peck said the three-point loss against the Cosmos back home was “a great high school basketball game with neither team having a lead of more than a few points all night.”
Yet, this one was all but over by halftime with the Slaters holding a 32-13 lead.
“We played with so much more energy than we did down there,” Ellis said.
Now, it’s a two-game regular season for each team as they try to improve their playoff stock.
The Slaters finish with games at Burr and Burton and at home against Mill River, teams in the upper echelon of D-II.
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