BARRE – The Danville boys took on all-comers in what can be considered a “group of death’” bracket, coming out the other end as Division IV state champions last week for the first time in six years.
Unheralded junior Landen Fournier drained 7 three-pointers on his way to a career-high 23 points as the Bears took down top-seeded West Rutland 55-42 on Saturday afternoon. It was a redemption story for head coach Jason Brigham and his senior captains Andrew Joncas and Arius Andrews, as they rinsed the taste of defeat out of their mouth as the top seed from the state title game against Grace Christian last March. The top-ranked Golden Horde did all they could to stay in striking distance behind the powers of their super sophomore Peter Guay (28 points), but in the end it was too much. Guay is following in the footsteps of his older sister Peyton Guay, who broke Jade Huntington’s all-time state scoring record last month and has her West Rutland team in position to capture their fourth straight Division IV title. Peter already surpassed 1,000 points earlier this season and has some historic records in his cross hairs the next two years.
Joncas made some history of his own on Saturday, breaking Roxanne (Carson) Courser’s school record of 1,709 career points with his sixth point of the game. Joncas broke another Danville legend’s scoring record last month, when he surpassed Dwayne Lynaugh’s 59-year-old scoring record for the boys program. Joncas will graduate in the spring with 1,717 career points.
It was the eighth state title for the Bears and second under Brigham, who cut down the nets with his team in 2019. It was no easy task this time around, as they went through the top two seeds in their division, including a 48-47 escape against Twinfield-Cabot in the semifinal round. Kohl Guinard was the hero in that one, putting his team on his back to hit the game-winner with Joncas and fellow starter Sebastian Eldred on the bench with five fouls. With the emergence of Fournier and plenty of returning experience, the Bears should have the firepower to defend their title next March against the hard charging young programs of West Rutland and the Trojans.
