HILLTOPPERS HOLD OFF BOBWHITES IN DEFENSIVE BATTLE
By ANTHONY LABOR JR.
ST. ALBANS – The BFA-St. Albans and St. Johnsbury boys basketball teams grinded out a defensive battle during their meeting Thursday night.
The Hilltoppers outscored the Bobwhites 12-3 in the second quarter and never gave up the lead, as they came away with the 33-23 victory.
“Defensively I couldn’t be more proud of our guys tonight,” said BFA coach Tristan Menard. “They battled hard and if you would have told me we would hold that team to 33 points, I would have definitely taken it.”
The game was tight through most of the first two quarters with the Hilltoppers holding on to a 12-9 advantage before they ended the first half on a 6-0 run.
The Bobwhites (9-7) didn’t go away easily, as they came out in the third quarter and outscored St. Johnsbury 10-5 to make it a 23-19 game. Thomas Demar tallied a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter to account for six of his team-high eight points. Going into the third down 18-9, Demar’s first 3 gave the Bobwhites some life offensively. His second 3 of the quarter surrounded by a basket by both Justin Brown and Liam Howrigan made it a four-point game going into the fourth.
The Hilltoppers came out firing as they started the fourth on an 8-0 run in the first three minutes. The Bobwhites couldn’t get their shots to drop, as they didn’t record a point in the fourth until there was just over a minute to go in the game down by 12 when Tanner Smith hit a layup.
It wasn’t the cleanest game on either side with both teams creating a number of turnovers. The Hilltoppers only got 22 field-goal attempts off in the game, but were efficient as they hit 13 of them. The Bobwhites got 26 field goal attempts off and only hit nine of them, including going 2-of-12 from behind the arc.
BFA’s Seth Richards drew a tough task having to guard St. Johnsbury big-man Fritz Hauser throughout the game. Richards frustrated him all game long not letting him get any easy looks in the paint, as Hauser went just 2-for-5 on shots in the post.
“Seth did a great job on their big man tonight,” said Menard. “He drew that task up in St. Johnsbury and he did a good job then, which isn’t an easy task against a taller player like that.”
Despite the final score, the Bobwhites can hang their hat on the fact that they battled in both games they played against St. Johnsbury, who sits on top of the Div. I standings with a 13-1 record. The Bobwhites led the Hilltoppers in the fourth quarter of their first meeting, but ended up falling to them 42-38.
“I think we showed in our two games against St. Johnsbury that we can compete with anyone that we go up against,” said Menard. “Yeah we would have liked different outcomes against them, but in the Metro, anything can happen on any given night.”
Howrigan scored four points for the Bobwhites, while Noah Earl, William Hughes, Tanner Smith, Richards and Brown each had two and Charlie Yates knocked in a point.
Thursday was the Bobwhites last regular season home game, as they will finish the season with four straight games on the road. They start with an away game at Colchester on Saturday. The Bobwhites won the first meeting against the Lakers 53-47 last Friday.
[envira-gallery id=”24438″]
