RANDOLPH – Kelsie Rivard added another record-breaking performance to her impressive resume last week as her Hazen Union girls basketball team rolled past Randolph to improve to 8-1 on the season.
Rivard erupted for a career-high and program record 43 points to lead the Lady Cats to an impressive 70-38 road win over Randolph on Saturday. The junior forward added 19 rebounds to her already formidable stat line as the Lady Cats took an insurmountable 43-15 edge into the break. Randolph came into the matchup with an impressive win over an 8-2 Oxbow team but Rivard doused any hopes of an upset, punishing Randolph with 27 first half points. Mya Lumsden added seven points and Autumn Dailey chipped in with five in the win. Kaleigh Jarvis-Chabot paced Randolph with 17 points and Ella Messier added 15 as the Lady Galloping Ghosts fell to 4-5.
Rivard already set the freshman record (33 points) in her Barre Auditorium debut two years ago when the Lady Cats cut down the nets for the first time in over three decades. All-time great Caitlyn Davison (34 points) finished off that championship run in the title game with a second half performance (26 points) that will stand the test of time.
As Rivard barrels towards the 1,000 point club with already 960 for her young career, the only comparison that can be made is to the GOAT Jennifer des Groseilliers. Although Rivard, and anyone else for that matter, may never reach des Groseilliers’ all-time Hazen Union scoring record of over 1,900 career points, eclipsing her single game record of 40 points is yet another incredible accomplishment that runs in a storied athletic Rivard family. Her mother Sue, who is now on the Lady Cat bench as an assistant coach, was the all-time scoring leader at North Country for 29 years. Her brother Tyler is on the Wildcat Mount Rushmore as the only player in school history with 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds. He also is the only player in school history with a 50 burger in a single game.
Many times throughout a given basketball season, you run across phenomenal individual performances and stats that don’t always run parallel to team success. That is certainly not the case here as the Lady Cats look primed to reach the Aud and win 20 games for a fourth consecutive season under head coach Randy Lumsden. Rivard is well supported by fellow talented juniors Mya Lumsden, Autumn Dailey and Taylor Thompson, as well as vital senior leadership from Isabelle Gouin and Julia des Groseilliers.
Hazen currently sits atop of the Division III standings ahead of No. 2 Bellows Falls, Oxbow and defending champion Windsor. Since losing their only game of the season to Division I powerhouse CVU, Coach Lumsden has moved Thompson to the point and Lumsden to scoring guard. The results have exceeded expectations, with Lumsden averaging career-highs at nearly 15 points per game, Rivard averaging nearly 25 over that span and Thompson harassing opposing point guards with her relentless defense.
“Mya was struggling to be efficient scoring the basketball, while trying to run our offense with her dad yelling in her ear from the sideline. We talked about potentially doing this over the summer and made a change after the CVU game. Everyone has bought in and it has organically benefited the entire team more than we ever thought it would. We still have things to improve on and need to keep working at playing our best basketball by the end of the season,” said Coach Lumsden.
Hazen will host Spaulding on Wednesday before traveling to take on Thetford Academy Friday night. All home games can be live-streamed on Hardwick Community Television (hctv.us).
