Twinfield-Cabot’s only senior Alice McLane (No. 10) looks to pass around Gracie Sylvester of Richford during play, January 30. Twinfield-Cabot lost to their guests 32-42.
MARSHFIELD – The Twinfield-Cabot girls’ basketball team split a pair of games out of their division last week, narrowly falling to red-hot Richford before Carley Mancini had a career night against Winooski to halt a three-game losing streak.
Sophomore point guard Kyrielle Deuso was held in check by the Lady Trojan defense for most of the night, but she hit another gear in the second half to lead Richford to a hard-fought 42-32 road win last Tuesday. The 2023 Vermont Dream Dozen selection scored 10 of her game-high 16 points in the final 12 minutes to help the Lady Rockets win their third straight.
Jorja Washburn led Twinfield with 11 as the home team took a 19-13 advantage into the break, but Richford used an 18-9 run in the first eight minutes of the second half to take the lead for good.
Kendall Fowler added 10 points for the Lady Trojans and Alice McLane chipped in with seven in the loss.
Richford improved to 10-3 on the season and are ranked third in the current Division III standings.
“They’re a good team, but we’re still struggling a bit to put together four good quarters of basketball, and that’s what you have to do to beat a team like that. The girls did a nice job of limiting them in the paint in the first half to give us a lead, but they hit some threes early in the third and it opened things up for them and Deuso the rest of the way. Give credit to them, they did a good job of shutting Alice down inside, but the girls have been working hard at taking a little more pride in their man to man defense this week in practice and they are excited for the challenge of facing them again at their place,” said head coach Jack Whalen.
Twinfield-Cabot’s Carley Mancini (left) dribbles and protects against Kyrielle Deuso of Richford on their home court, January 3. Richford won 42-32.
Carley Mancini poured in a career-high 16 points to lead Twinfield-Cabot to a 53-44 Mountain League road win against Division III Winooski last Thursday.
McLane bounced back with 11 points inside and Washburn added nine more to help the 9-5 Lady Trojans snap a three-game losing skid.
Winooski had won four of six coming into this match-up but fell to 5-8 and down to tenth in the division standings.
Twinfield-Cabot is firmly in the No. 5 spot in the Division IV standings and is on track to host a playoff game in Whalen’s first season on the sidelines.
“Carley works so hard for us defensively, rarely coming out of games, and it was so great to see her breakout and earn some recognition offensively. With Kendall in foul trouble, it was needed, along with Jorja continuing to stay aggressive with quality drives to the basket. The girls are continuing to put the work in defensively and trying to improve our transition scoring. I’m proud of this group for what they’ve done so far, but they are hungry to finish out the regular season strong and make a playoff push. We’re going to keep focusing on the next game in front of us,” said Whalen.
The Lady Trojans welcomed BFA-Fairfax to town on Tuesday and will travel to crosstown rival Danville for a key divisional match-up on Thursday night.
