BARRE – The Twinfield-Cabot boys basketball team got the better of Williamstown last week in what was the first appearance for the crosstown rivals in the Second Annual Winter Solstice Classic at the Barre Auditorium.
photo by Vanessa Fournier
Omar Miksic-Knibb led the Trojans with 14 points as they outlasted Williamstown 51-43 last Friday night. Tej Stewart added 10 points and 14 rebounds, Eli Russell ran the offense scoring 11 of his 13 points in the second half, and Zepherin Hebert rounded out a balanced Trojan scoring attack with 11. Both teams went into the break knotted at 14-14, with Twinfield-Cabot taking a 30-28 advantage after three, before the Trojan offense exploded 21 in the final eight minutes to pull away. Nick Mascitti led all scorers with 18 in the loss. Williamstown’s Evan Bailey (five points) was held to a single field goal on the night and Trojan head coach Kris Bador couldn’t say enough about the defensive effort by Miksic-Knibb on the high scoring guard.
“For a freshman like Omar to take the pride he does in guarding the opposing team’s best player night in and night out is just special. We had some great practices leading up to this matchup and the guys did a nice job recognizing mismatches and shared the basketball. Playing at the Aud is a big stage for our young team and I’m not sure we win a game like that last year, but they are really starting to play together. We got great efforts by our guys off the bench and this team is already showing tremendous growth from the start of the season,” said Bador.
photo by Vanessa Fournier
Russell was a true floor general over the holiday break for the Trojans, matching his career high (27 points) twice in wins over Oxbow and Proctor. Stewart has been a rock-solid captain with an 18-point effort against Oxbow and added 15 points and 10 boards against Proctor. Thomas Gouge (16 points versus Oxbow) has been doing the dirty work inside with the absence of Sam Churchill, and the return of Sam McLane from a preseason injury has given Bador some much needed depth to his roster. Twinfield-Cabot came up short in losses to crosstown rival Danville and Vergennes over the break, but Bador believes his young team has yet to play their best basketball of the season.
“Danville is one of the best teams in our division and Jason Brigham and his kids have built a wonderful program over there. They’ve had our number the last couple of years and having that experience early in the season against a team like that showed us that you’re going to have to play 32 relentless minutes to beat them. We have a selfless group of kids here at Twinfield-Cabot and they truly play for each other. Beating a team like Williamstown on a big stage like that is a big step for this team and I’m proud of the kids and the support the community and former players of the program has shown them. We’re getting ready for another tough matchup against Danville and there’s no doubt we are becoming battle tested in a hurry with the schedule we’ve played. There is a lot of basketball left in the season and our kids our determined to keep putting the work in to get back to that historic gym in Barre come March,” said Bador.
The Trojans are scheduled to travel to Danville on Wednesday and will return home for a match-up against Blue Mountain on Friday night, before welcoming powerhouse Winooski to town next Monday.
