HARDWICK – The Barre Auditorium has become a second home for the Hazen Union girls basketball program the last few years and they punched their ticket to the Division III Final Four last week for a fourth consecutive time with a resounding quarterfinal win over Green Mountain.
photo by Vanessa Fournier
Junior Kelsie Rivard punished Green Mountain with 24 points in limited minutes on Saturday to lead Hazen to a 73-27 blowout win at home. The Lady Grizz came into the Cat Den with high hopes after upsetting No. 8 White River Valley in the first round Wednesday night. Those hopes were quickly dashed against the relentless full court defensive pressure from Hazen as they opened the game on a 20-6 run. Junior Mya Lumsden continued to enjoy a breakout season, scoring 17 points for the Lady Cats as they increased their lead to 37-13 at the break. Fellow junior Autumn Dailey added seven points and senior Julia des Groseilliers chipped in with 6 in the win.
Jordyn Farrar led Green Mountain with 10 points as their season came to an end at 10-11.
photo by Vanessa Fournier
“We had a good week of practice and preparation and were able to get a scrimmage in with Rutland earlier in the week, which can only get us more ready for matchups ahead of us. Unfortunately, Kelsie broke her nose in that scrimmage and had to wear a mask for the game. It definitely didn’t affect her much because she came out aggressive, scoring early and often. Our freshman Eloise Foster is getting closer to 100%, and having her back on the floor gives us more depth. It was a good win and going back to Barre is a great achievement for these girls,” said head coach Randy Lumsden.
Rivard has been a beast in her junior campaign for the Lady Cats, averaging north of 21 points per game, while becoming the first underclassmen in program history since the great Jennifer des Groseilliers to reach 1,000 career points. Lumsden too is enjoying a career year since moving to shooting guard, averaging over 13 points per game as Hazen’s long-range threat that opens up the offense. Junior Taylor Thompson has been a demon defensively while running the offense, senior Isabelle Gouin just poured in a career-high 20 points last week. Dailey and des Groseilliers are giving high energy patrolling the paint. Lumsden’s objective when he took over the Lady Cat program four years ago was to make it a powerhouse. A state championship, four straight Final Fours and nearly 80 wins later, most would agree that he’s already achieved that.
photo by Vanessa Fournier
“I’m happy for the girls and getting to Barre is an achievement in itself. I’m not able to sit back and enjoy what we’ve accomplished yet because the job isn’t finished. The goal is to finish the season with a W. I love the way the girls have matured, and they now have a lot of big game experience. Having players like them who work hard and buy in makes it easy to be a good coach. Vergennes will be a challenge. They’re well coached and get out and run just like us. I’m sure they’ll have a gameplan for us, but some of the teams we’ve battled with this season will have us ready for the challenge,” said Lumsden.
Hazen (18-2) rolls into Barre as the top seed in Division III and will take on a fifth seeded Vergennes team (17-5) Thursday night that is coming off an upset win over No. 4 Bellows Falls. Second seeded Windsor and No. 3 Oxbow will do battle in the other semifinal match-up. The winners advance to the championship game on Saturday night.
