by Ken Brown
WELLS RIVER – The Twinfield-Cabot boys’ basketball team broke free from some late game collapses and bad luck over the holiday break, ending a three-game slide with a road win against Blue Mountain last week, improving to 3-4 on the season.
Sam Russell and Brayden Cushing stepped up with 15 points apiece to lead the Trojans to a hard-fought 50-48 win at Blue Mountain on Friday. With leading scorer Tej Stewart out with injury, Cushing drained five three-pointers on the night. In a back and forth affair, Russell gave Twinfield-Cabot the lead for good, connecting from long range with under a minute left in regulation.
Kason Blood nearly hit the game winner for Blue Mountain in the waning seconds, but it rimmed out and the Trojans escaped with a pivotal league win.
Sophomore Sam Churchill chipped in with a career-high eight points for Twinfield-Cabot. Blood finished with 14 for the Bucks and Kris Fennimore added eight, as they fell to 3-4.
The win snapped a string of late game losses for the Trojans that started with Oxbow before the holiday break and continued with a heartbreaking 54-51 road loss to Division III Vergennes two days after Christmas.
Stewart led Twinfield-Cabot with 15 points and nine rebounds as they took a five-point lead into halftime but couldn’t put the game away down the stretch.
First year head coach Kris Bador and his young squad hosted Danville last Wednesday in what was his first taste of the crosstown rivalry. After a tight first quarter, the Trojans couldn’t buy a basket in the next eight minutes, as the Bears broke the game open with a 24-0 run and a 42-17 lead at the break.
Twinfield-Cabot fought back to win the last two quarters, but the Bear’s Andrew Joncas and his game-high 26 points were too much to overcome.
Kohl Guinard chipped in with 12 in the win, as Danville improved to 6-2 and moved up to the second spot in the Division IV rankings.
Meles Gouge paced the Trojans with 10 points and Stewart added eight in the loss.
Twinfield-Cabot has slipped down the rankings into the tenth position but is only percentage points out of the top five and has shown the ability to play with anyone in the division.
Bador likes where his team is at mentally after fighting through some adversity the last couple of weeks.
“We are a young team that has battled together through some tough games the last two weeks and I am very happy with the boys and their effort. This group of kids have a no quit mentality and they showed that again this past week against two good teams. We are growing a little more as a team after every one of these tight games and it was great to see the kids earn that win on the road without our full roster. This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. The goal is to get better and better as players and as a team by mid-February and get ready for the second season in the playoffs,” said Bador
Twinfield-Cabot will host Craftsbury Academy on Wednesday night and will stay at home for a clash with Division III Richford on Friday.
