WINOOSKI – The defending Division III champion Hazen Union girls basketball team cooled off a pair of hot teams in Winooski and Richford last week to wrap up the regular season on a seven-game win streak.
Sophomore Kelsie Rivard poured in 23 points to fuel a big second half as the Lady Cats pulled away from Winooski on the road last Thursday 65-34. The Lady Spartans looked game for an upset early on, using a 19-3 second quarter run to pull within three heading into the break. Fellow sophomores Autumn Dailey (13 points) and Mya Lumsden (12) combined to drain four three-pointers as Hazen broke open the game with a 17-3 run of their own to open the second half. Junior Isabelle Gouin punished Winooski with another deep three on her way to an 11-point night. Winooski came into the matchup having won four-of-five behind leading scorers Moo July Htoo and Joyce Mampaya, but the Lady Cat defense frustrated the dynamic duo the final sixteen minutes of regulation. The loss dropped Winooski to 10-8. They will enter the Division III state tournament this week as the eighth seed.
Lumsden drained a trio of threes Saturday afternoon on her way to a 15-point performance to lead Hazen to a 44-30 win over a red-hot Richford team. Dailey added 12 and Rivard chipped in with 11 as the Lady Cats raced out to a 26-10 halftime lead and never looked back. Kyrielle Deuso (15 points) connected from long range twice to keep her team within striking distance in the second half, but Hazen’s defense was stifling start to finish once again. Two of Richford’s six losses have come at the hands of the Lady Cats this season as they fell for only the second time in twelve contests. The 14-6 Lady Rockets will look to get back to the Final Four for a second straight year as the seventh seed.
Hazen finished off a third straight regular season with only a single loss and will have a pair of home games in the first two rounds as they look to get back to the Barre Auditorium for a third straight season under head coach Randy Lumsden.
“We’ve definitely learned a lot about ourselves the last couple of games. I feel like we match up with the top teams in our division pretty well. Oxbow’s size obviously presents some challenges and Windsor’s strength, and physicality will be something that every team going against them have to deal with. I’d like to think that we have some strength as a program that those teams will have to prepare for as well. That’s looking ahead, but make no mistake, we will be focusing on the games that are guaranteed and right now that starts with Mill River,” said Lumsden.
The second-seeded Lady Cats officially begin their title defense on Wednesday night at 7 p.m., as they welcome No. 15 Mill River to the Cat Den. If they advance, they will host the winner of the Richford/Randolph match-up on Saturday in the quarter finals.
