FAIRFAX – The Twinfield-Cabot boys basketball team just keeps winning no matter what, downing Division III BFA-Fairfax on the road last week in a double overtime thriller for their eleventh straight win to take over the top spot in the current Division IV rankings.
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Star senior point guard Eli Russell shook off a rare subpar shooting night to save his best for last, finishing off a drive at the buzzer to lead the Trojans to an 83-82 double overtime thriller against the Bullets last Thursday. With their other star senior Tej Stewart out of the lineup nursing a leg injury, Twinfield-Cabot found themselves in a dogfight with The Bullets after beating them by nearly 30 points in Marshfield just a month ago. Fairfax took a 15-11 lead after eight minutes before the Trojans battled back to even the score at 30-30 heading into the break. It was 47-47 after three quarters, 63-63 after regulation and 70-70 after the first overtime. Azeem Stewart led the way, knocking down four 3-pointers on his way to an 18-point night for the Trojans. Fellow sophomore Omar Miksic-Knibb and Russell each finished with 16.
“I knew Eli would make the correct read if they gave him a lane, he saw it and won the game on a bigtime finish from our senior captain. The two sophomores are playing at an extremely high level right now and Sam Churchill made two clutch free throws for us in overtime. Everyone contributed and played extremely well. Just a great team win and happy to get out of Fairfax with 6 big index points,” said head coach Kris Bador.
Zepherin Hebert added 14 points in the win for Twinfield-Cabot and Sam Mclane and Thomas Gouge chipped in with eight apiece. Kaivon Sitas led the Bullets with a game-high 26, Ben Stevens complimented with 18 and Ryan Muehl added 16. The loss dropped Fairfax to 8-8 on the season.
Just 50 points away from 1,000 career points, Bador and his tight-knit team continue to cross their fingers that Stewart will end his stellar high school career in uniform to help lead his team to the Barre Auditorium for a second consecutive season.
“We should have a pretty good idea by the end of the week, and it goes without saying, everyone on this team and in this community is hoping for good news for Tej. This team is a family. We love and support each other. We lift each other up and each one of these guys truly plays for the name on the front of their jersey. We have three more big games this week and have a lot of work to do still to tighten some things up, but I like where we’re at right now,” said Bador.
Twinfield-Cabot improved to 14-1 and took over the top spot from undefeated West Rutland by percentage points in the current Division IV rankings for the first time this season. MSJ (14-2), Twin Valley (13-3) and Williamstown (13-4) round out the top five.
The Trojans hosted Stowe on Tuesday before hitting the road for match-ups against Northfield on Thursday and Richford on Friday. They return home for a tough Mountain League matchup against Oxbow next Monday.
