HORNETS RUN AWAY FROM FAIRFAX TO CLOSE REGULAR SEASON
By Ben Kaufmann
ENOSBURG – What looked briefly like it might be an exciting contest turned into anything but on Saturday afternoon. BFA-Fairfax turned heads by racing out to a 7-4 lead in the first three minutes at Enosburg; when the Bullets scored again with 20 seconds left in the second quarter, it cut Enosburg’s lead to 31-9. The Hornets had little trouble holding on for a 58-25 victory in the final game of the regular season.
There’s a strong chance the two sides could face each other once more this year after playoff pairings are announced on Monday. That possibility had Hornet coach Chad Lovelette wondering if maybe the Bullets were keeping a few tricks up their sleeves in anticipation of a win-or-go-home game next week.
“Obviously you could tell they were semi putting in effort, so it is what it is,” Lovelette said. “Depending on what happens tonight, we could be playing them Tuesday night just like this. But we needed it, so we’ll take it.”
Fairfax (8-12) coach Dave Demar credited Saturday’s defeat simply to a strong Enosburg (11-7) team which was much better over the course of 32 minutes.
“Enosburg is good,” Demar said. “They’re like a six seed, but they’re not a six seed, they’re good. They’ve been together for a while now, their systems are clicking, their players are clicking, they’re well coached. There’s a reason why they’re there every year, right? They were just a lot better than us today.”
Whatever led to Saturday’s lopsided contest, fans who missed the opening five minutes missed out on any excitement on the court. BFA’s Bryce Fontaine came well, countering EFHS baskets by Landon Blake and Devyn Gleason with four points of his own to go with a Lane Stygles three, giving the Bullets a 7-4 lead with five minutes remaining in the first. The Hornets answered with three baskets from Gavin Combs and threes from Shea Howrigan and Gleason to take a 16-7 lead into the second quarter.
Blair Archambault had a free throw and two subsequent baskets to kick off the second for the Hornets, Nathaniel Robtoy followed with a runner, Howrigan hit another three and followed a Gleason basket with one more. 27 unanswered points and few shot attempts of its own later, BFA finally took a timeout down 31-7 with 2:35 left before halftime.
The Bullets were fortunate to move the scoreboard at all before halftime. Reed Stygles broke the 27-0 , 12+ minute run with a layup on which he could have been whistled for a charge and Evan Fletcher hit a long three to beat the halftime buzzer with the Bullets down 33-12.
Little changed in the third quarter as the Hornets opened with seven straight points. Fletcher responded with a 15-footer before Howrigan hit consecutive threes. A runner by Luca Chayer accounted for Fairfax’s only other points of the quarter and they went to the fourth down 50-16.
Howrigan’s 16 points and 13 from Gleason led all scorers. Archambault finished with seven, Combs and Landon Blake scored six apiece and Silas Kane finished with four. Danny Antillon, Ethan Hogaboom, Aydan Dash and Robtoy rounded out the Hornet scoring with two points each.
On the heels of an impressive showing in a loss at North Country, Lovelette was happy to see his team play relaxed and free. He says as the season has progressed, he’s ceded some offensive control to the players as long as things are up to par at the defensive end.
“We’ve definitely become a different team, there’s no question about that. Just a couple tweaks offensively, maybe the coach giving them a little more freedom sometimes helps. Being less Xs and Os and letting them play a little bit
At one point we had a week and a half off and I told them if you give me this on this end, I’m going to give you some leeway on this end. Some shots that maybe three or four weeks ago I wouldn’t be so happy about, I’m going to let it roll as long as we’re doing what we need to do on this end.”
Fletcher and Burton Brown led Fairfax with five points apiece, Fontaine finished with four and both Stygles brothers and Tommy Sheehan each had three.
