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Boys Basketball
Windsor 78, Springfield 44
The Yellow Jackets' offense was firing on all cylinders as they buzzed past the Cosmos for their fifth victory in six games Monday evening.
“Everything's been coming together,” said Windsor coach Harry Ladue. “We're playing better. We're shooting the ball better. We're sharing it better. We've got to rebound a little better though. I'm still a little skeptical there. We're not getting a lot of clean rebounds.”
Dakota Page sparked a pair of 18-point quarters to push the Jacks to a 36-16 halftime lead. He sandwiched a pair of field goals around two free throws in the first period, then squeezed two more fouls shots between a 3-pointer and a two in the second. Windsor also got some help from Robert Slocum off the bench with five points, as well as five more from Adam Stapleton in the first half.
Seth Balch, who had a pair of baskets in the first 16 minutes, hit for seven points to highlight a 23-point third-quarter barrage. Slocum banged out two more treys
“A lot of guys are playing well. I'm happy with that,” said Ladue. “Robert off the bench, what did he hit, five or six threes?”
Slocum actually had four, but ended the night with 14 points, one less than Page's team-high 15. Balch contributed 11, and Duncan Frazer and Hunter Grela had nine apiece with Stapleton netting seven more.
The Yellow Jackets would collect eight treys on the evening and go 8-for-9 at the foul line to help their effort.
Meanwhile, the Cosmos' Caleb Hunter stole a page out of the Windsor playbook, knocking down five 3-pointers on the night. He had two in an eight-point second period, another in the third, then canned two more in a nine-point fourth. Hunter would finish with a game-high 22 points.
Chris Hopkins and Dakota Bushey added six points each for the Cosmos.
“We let them dictate play,” said Springfield coach Michael Ruppel. “Once we broke their press we took too early a shot, let them get out in transition and obviously they did a great job finishing, and then they're right back up in your face, so that was tough to see.”
Ruppel said his team needed to be more patient with the ball.
“It's one of those things where we know that if we're a little bit more patient offensively we can get great looks, but when it's one pass and a shot, maybe a guy's not in rhythm, maybe it's something that we're not looking for in that offense. That's when we're missing..
“Tonight was a setback for us. I thought last week we were sharper against Fall Mountain, but tonight we tried to play Windsor's game and Windsor's better at Windsor's game.”
Windsor (6-8) hosts Leland & Gray Wednesday while Springfield (0-15) visits Hartford Thursday.
Jacks Win Fifth Out of Last Six Games
By Poody Walsh
Valley News Correspondent
Tuesday, February 07, 2017
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WINDSOR HIGH BOYS BASKETBALL
Springfield, Vt. — Windsor High continued its late-season surge with a comfortable 78-44 win over Springfield on Monday night in a Marble Valley League boys basketball contest at Dressel Gym.
There was a time this season when the Vermont high school basketball world wondered what was going with a Windsor team that dropped seven straight games after a season-opening victory. After all, playing winning basketball in Windsor has been a given for a long time.
All appears well now. Monday’s win was the Yellowjackets’ fifth in their last six starts, inching them closer to the .500 mark at 6-8.
Junior guard Dakota Page has helped spark the Jacks’ revival. For a 5-foot-10 guy, Page plays much bigger with endless energy, and he can both drive the lane and shoot the 3-pointer.
“He’s good every night,” said Windsor coach Harry Ladue, who also credited sophomore Robbie Slocum with showing great progress. “I don’t worry much when I call him off the bench.”
Windsor is a very young team, with only one senior starter, that is getting it all together as the season heads to tourney time.
“Everything’s kind of coming together,” Ladue said. “Tonight I thought we did a good job of limiting their shots while we passed the ball well and had a lot of good looks. It was a nice game for us.”
Monday night’s win also came against a Springfield squad that has not won a game since December 2015. However, there was an inkling that the Cosmos were getting better after competitive games with Fall Mountain (54-44) and Leland and Gray (53-49).
“This was a step back tonight,” admitted Springfield coach Mike Ruppel.
All of the boys sports teams at Springfield have been in a tailspin for several years. Ruppel thinks his basketball team is continuing to improve, however, even though scoring and handling the pressure has slowed the progress.
“We have to be more patient on offense,” Ruffel explained. “We know Windsor is going to apply pressure defense, and when we did get the ball up the court, we shot right away. We have to be patient to get the good shot.”
Lost in the one-sided game was the effort of Springfield senior Caleb Hunter, who had five 3-pointers in a 22-point night. Unfortunately, no other Springfield player had more than six points.
There was never any doubt as to the outcome, with the Jacks holding leads of 36-16 at the half and 59-27 after three quarters.
Windsor, which has been raining in threes lately, had eight more against the Cosmos, four from Slocum.
Ladue, like most coaches, can look at a game like this and still find some things that need attention.
“We need to rebound better,” he said.
In all, 10 different Windsor players scored.
The Jacks have a home makeup game with Leland and Gray on Wednesday night. Springfield goes to Hartford on Thursday.
Notes: The 2016 state champion Springfield field hockey team received jackets during a halftime ceremony that also honored the 1986 state champs. Four Windsor High athletes were part of last fall’s championship effort.
It was great to see so many people from Springfield and Windsor come out to support this accomplishment! Congrats to these young ladies and their coaches.
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