The Hazen Union Wildcats who are the champions of the eighth annual Dave Morse Classic, held December 15 against Williamstown, included , front row (left to right) Manager Trevor Smith, Manager Noah Foster, Lincoln Hill, Morgan Michaud, Brendan Moodie, Jamison Lamarre and Khamden Luangrath; back row (left to right) Gavin Bell, Tyler Hopkins, Fenton Meyer, Ryan Morrison, Xavier Hill, Gabriel Michaud and Sullivan Laflam.
by Ken Brown
HARDWICK – The Hazen Union boys’ basketball team celebrated the hall of fame life of the late great Dave Morse last week with their fifth straight Dave Morse Classic (DMC) championship.
Senior point guard Xavier Hill made the most of his three quarters of work, scoring 18 points to lead the Wildcats to a decisive 73-33 win over Peoples Academy (PA) in the opening round of the DMC last Wednesday. Hill sat the entire fourth quarter, but not before dishing out seven assists and electrifying a sold out Cat Den crowd with a breakaway dunk midway through the second quarter.
Gabe Michaud was relentless on the offensive glass, punishing the Wolves with 11 points and five boards. Morgan Michaud added nine points, Sully Laflam and Brendan Moodie scored eight apiece, and Ryan Morrison chipped in with seven. Hudson Mace paced PA with eight and Blair Whitney added seven in the loss. Williamstown came back from a 25-point deficit to stun Lamoille 46-45 in the other opening round match-up.
Williamstown and Hazen Union seemingly traded Division III state titles for more than a decade under head coaches Jack Carrier and Aaron Hill, but the Wildcats showed little mercy in this title match-up, dispatching the Blue Devils 72-27 on Friday night to win the Dave Morse Classic for a fifth straight year.
Hazen Union senior Xavier Hill (center) is triple-teamed by Williamstown’s Liam Hebert (left), Chris Collins (No. 21) and Evan Bailey (right) during action in the eighth annual Dave Morse Classic Championship game, December 15. Hazen won 72-27.
Sophomore Sully Laflam broke out for a career-high 26 points and 11 rebounds as Hazen built a 41-13 lead and never looked back. Xavier Hill made the most of his minutes once again, dishing out six more assists to go along with a 16-point night. Williamstown used their size early to get Gabe Michaud and Fenton Meyer into early foul trouble, but Tyler Hopkins showed Hazen’s depth in the frontcourt with six rebounds and quality minutes. Moodie and Hill sliced through the Blue Devil’s zone press time after time for easy layups and Williamstown had no answer on the offensive end. Hill made back-to-back buckets midway through the second quarter to make it 28-8 Cats and Laflam made a pair of late three-pointers on good ball movement to put the game out of reach through 16 minutes of play.
The stage wasn’t too big for Wildcat freshman Jameson Lamare as he backed up a six-point performance in the opener with 13 rebounds in the title game. Laflam extinguished any hopes of another dramatic Blue Devil comeback after the break, exploding for 18 in the third quarter alone to push the lead to 42 with eight minutes to play. Lamoille edged PA 55-51 in the consolation game.
“The atmosphere was just awesome, especially in the title game on Friday night. This tournament celebrating Dave is such a wonderful way to start our season off. Our passing and team play were great, and you can’t measure the impact Brendan had on the game as a floor general from the box score. Our bench showed real promise with some high-quality minutes, but we suffered some injuries to Ryan and Tyler, so we need to get them healthy,” said Hill.
Hazen Union joins BFA-Fairfax, Thetford Academy, and Vergennes as the only undefeated teams in a top-heavy Division III. The Bullets pace the division at 3-0 after ending Winooski’s 22 game win streak on Friday night. The Wildcats should get a good road test against Division II Enosburg on Wednesday and will travel to the Barre Auditorium on Saturday afternoon to take on PA in the Winter Solstice. The inaugural tournament was created by Hardwick Academy alum Jimmy McWilliam and will feature both boys and girls’ teams from Hazen Union, PA, Spaulding, and Montpelier.
