DANVILLE – The Twinfield-Cabot boys basketball team took a major leap into the Division IV pool of contenders last week with huge wins over crosstown rival Danville and Blue Mountain, improving to 7-2 on the season.
Tej Stewart poured in 26 points, including a trio of three pointers to power the Trojans to an impressive 70-63 road win over Danville last Wednesday. Eli Russell also connected from long range three times, on his way to a 16-point performance as Twinfield-Cabot finally announced itself as equal to its archrival big brother down the road.
Second-year head coach Kris Bador snapped a four-game losing streak to the Bears, who handled the Trojans three times last season, including a decisive knockout in the Division IV quarterfinals last March. Zepherin Hebert added 13 points and freshman Omar Miksic-Knibb chipped in with 10 in the win. Andrew Joncas led Danville with a game-high 27 and Kohl Guinard added 14 in the loss. Danville was the top seed last season, making it all the way to the Division IV state title game before falling to Grace Christian.
“Coming off our win against Williamstown at the Barre Aud last week, this was a big week for our program. We had two very competitive practices heading into our match-up with Danville, trying to figure out how to compete against a team like that. The boys came in ready and Tej took off right from the tip, setting the tone. We had great scoring balance, which made us hard to defend, but Danville didn’t go away, putting together a great fourth quarter. We made our free throws down the stretch and came away with a tremendous road win. Our coaching staff was fantastic coming up with a game plan and the boys went out and executed. It’s a great win for the program but it’s just a regular season win that will hopefully help us come playoff time,” said Bador.
The Trojans didn’t take their foot off the gas on Friday night as Thomas Gouge scored a career-high 21 points and pulled down 11 boards in a 71-45 home drubbing of the Bucks. Russell (19 points) drained three more from long range as Twinfield-Cabot used a 16-4 second quarter to take a 33-19 lead into the break. Kason Blood tried to keep Blue Mountain within striking distance with his game-high 25, but the scoring balance of the Trojans was too much. The loss dropped the Bucks to 3-4.
“They have one of the best point guards in the division in Blood and we stressed not having a letdown or any setbacks going into this match-up. Thomas was great underneath for us, Eli continued to run the offense at a high level, and we were able to get some deserving guys some big varsity minutes off the bench. Our schedule doesn’t get any easier this week in the Mountain League but the guys are really playing for each other right now. On any given night any of my starting five can get 20 depending on the match-up. Hopefully we can continue to play together and see what happens,” said Bador.
The Trojans hosted high-powered Winooski on Monday and will welcome a talented Richford team to town on Friday night. Twinfield-Cabot’s perfect week vaulted them up to No. 3 in the Division IV standings behind West Rutland and Danville.