HARDWICK – Spaulding Alumni mounted a huge second half comeback to edge the Hazen Union Alumni in another epic battle last week to claim their second consecutive Hazen Summer League Championship.
Tavarius Vance’s game-high 28 points helped the Crimson Tide Alumni erase a 16-point second half deficit and hold off the Wildcat Alumni 81-76 to win the Hazen Summer League title game last Thursday.
Isaiah Terrill gave Spaulding the lead for good with a minute to play. Riley Severy and Cole McAllister made just enough free throws down the stretch to keep Hazen at bay.
Spaulding alum Tavarius Vance guards Hazen alum Sully Laflam in Hazen Summer League play on Thursday, August 8. The Spaulding Alumni came back from a 12 point halftime deficit to take the lead in the last minute of play, claiming their second consecutive Summer League Championship.
Tyler Rivard’s 22 points and 12 rebounds helped give the Wildcats a 48-36 half time lead they would stretch to 16 early in the second half behind Carter Hill’s 18 points on 9-11 shooting.
Severy’s 14 points with 14 rebounds and Cooper Diego’s 15 points with 6 assists were too much for a cold shooting Wildcat squad in the second half. Vance made 4 of 6 of his shots from long range, pulled down five rebounds and blocked a shot to complete Spaulding’s mission to repeat.
Xavier Hill scored 14 points, pulled down 11 boards and dished out six assists in an off night from long range, Billy Boyd added 14 points on 7 of 9 shooting and Kevin Doyon knocked down Hazen’s only three-pointers on the night in a six-point effort. Vance had a solid freshman campaign for the VTSU-Lyndon men’s team last winter averaging seven points and nearly four rebounds per game.
Severy saw action in seven games for the Norwich University men’s team last year as a freshman. Boyd, Rivard, and Xavier Hill finished their careers with well north of 3,000 points between them. Rivard is the only player in school history to graduate with 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds.
Head coach Hill has watched countless Wildcat greats bring six Division III state titles back home to Hardwick over his quarter century plus on the bench and loves to see the connection between past and current players remain strong.
“One special thing about our program that I think is different from other places is the connection and pride our alumni continue to have with our current players. When our players graduate, they don’t leave the program, their role just changes a little,” said Hill.
Hill’s Wildcats have made the final game of the Division III tournament for three consecutive seasons, winning the whole thing with Rivard, Carter Hill and Xavier Hill on the floor in the 2021-22 season. He’ll have one of his youngest squads in quite some time this coming winter and views the annual Hazen Summer League as a vital tool to prepare players for the rigors of the rugged Capital League.
“Our summer league is a huge part of our program. It provides an incredibly high level of competition for our high school players to play against, while also giving our former players a chance to play basketball in a competitive way. The size, strength and skill of the men’s teams is much stronger than the high school teams that we will go up against during the regular season,” said Hill.
Xavier Hill will be a freshman at St. Michael’s College this coming fall.
