WILLIAMSTOWN HOLDS OFF ENOSBURG IN SEMIFINALS
By ANTHONY LABOR
County Courier
WILLIAMSTOWN – After using late game heroics during its first two postseason games, the Enosburg boys basketball team earned a trip to Wednesday’s Div. III semifinal game.
Unfortunately for the seventh-seeded Hornets, their bid for a third comeback came up just short after falling behind by double digits going into the fourth quarter of the game against No. 6 Williamstown. Enosburg gave everything it had in the final eight minutes, but the Blue Devils hit their free throws to keep the Hornets at bay on their way to a 51-44 win.
Enosburg struggled to get the ball down low against Williamtown’s zone defense, as it took 30 shots from three-point range, as opposed to 17 inside.
“We knew coming into the game that they were going to play zone, so it was just a matter of whether we could make shots or not,” said Lovelette. “Our gameplan was trying not to settle for 3s and we just took way more than we wanted to. We knew what they were going to do, and it just wasn’t our night tonight.”
Enosburg started out the game strong taking a 12-7 lead late into the first quarter behind five points from Devyn Gleason, four points from Owen McKinstry and three from Gavin Combs.
When it seemed like the Hornets would take the momentum into the second quarter, Williamstown’s Michael Murphy hit a 3 at the buzzer from well behind the 3-point line energized the Blue Devils’ bench. The Blue Devils kept that momentum going in the second, as they outscored the Hornets 11-5 to take a 21-17 lead going into halftime.
“We weren’t matching their intensity early on,” said Lovelette. “We were confident going into the second half because we were only down four and I’m not sure we could have played much worse than we did in the first half.”
Enosburg came out of the gates in the second half strong getting a basket by Ethan Hogaboom and a steal and breakaway layup from Shea Howrigan (eight points) to make it a 23-21 game. Williamstown called a timeout and used it to its advantage as it went on a 13-2 run to extend the lead to double digits.
The Hornets did everything in their power to stage a comeback, as they hit five 3s to lead them to 18 points in the frame. But the deficit was too much, as Williamstown sunk 11 of their 15 free throw attempts to hold off another Enosburg comeback.
“If you told me we were going to give up 51 points after the number of times we had to foul at the end, I would say we would probably win,” said Lovelette. “We just didn’t put the ball in the hoop, had a lot of turnovers and just wasn’t our night tonight.”
McKinstry did everything in his power to will the team to a victory, as he finished with 18 points and six rebounds.
He played hero in two of the Hornets’ last three games, as he hit a 3 with seconds to go in the team’s regular-season finale against Div. I BFA-St. Albans for the win. He followed that up with a buzzer-beater at the end of regulation to force overtime in the first round of the playoffs against Peoples where the Hornets would end up winning. He then followed that up with another solid outing against Hazen in the quarterfinals even when they were focused on him.
“You can’t ask for anything more from a player than we did from Owen,” said Lovelette. “It’s tough that he was trying to will himself and everyone else toward the end and just couldn’t pull it off. There isn’t a coach in Vermont that wouldn’t take that kind on their team. I guarantee you that.”
It was another successful postseason run for the Hornets after finishing the season .500. They entered last year’s playoffs at 10-10 before making a run to the championship. They ended the regular season this year at 4-4 and the year at 6-5.
The future looks bright for the Hornets, who will return four of their five starters and will have even more depth with their rotational players continuing to get better in what will hopefully be a normal year next season, including Dan Antillon, Silas Kane and Wyatt Boyce.
“I don’t think we will skip a beat next year,” said Lovelette. “The future looks bright and we have a lot of players that have played in a championship game and now made another run to the semifinals, so things look good for us.”
