WELLS RIVER – Senior point guard Eli Russell continued his march towards a career scoring milestone last week, leading the Twinfield-Cabot boys basketball team to a pair of lopsided road wins over Blue Mountain and Grace Christian.
Russell knocked down a three on his way to a 19-point night as the Trojans doubled up Blue Mountain last Tuesday 76-38. Omar Miksic-Knibb complemented with 14 of his own, Zepherin Hebert added 13 and Thomas Gouge (13 points) ventured out of the paint to connect on a rare three. Azeem Stewart chipped in with seven points as Twinfield-Cabot put the game away early, taking a 47-13 advantage into the break. Conner Dailey led the Bucks with eight points as they fell to 2-13 on the season.
On a rare back-to-back road trip, Russell showed zero signs of fatigue Wednesday night, pouring in a career-high 36 to power the Trojans past Grace Christian in Bennington 86-46. Russell added four steals to his impressive stat sheet as he surged within 70 points of 1,000 for his stellar career. Azeem Stewart continued his solid sophomore campaign with 17 points, Herbert scored 14 and Miksic-Knibb did a little bit of everything with 12 points, seven assists and five rebounds. It has been a quick fall from grace for the Lions from their 21-win season and Division IV state runner up to Danville in 2024 as they fell to 1-9 on the year.
Russell seems determined to put his stamp on a historic high school career at Twinfield-Cabot, coming off a 30-goal season for his Caledonia United (Twinfield-Cabot-Danville) soccer team whose only loss came in the Division IV state title match. Russell earned Mountain League Player of the Year honors as well as a second straight Vermont All-State selection. He hopes to get his senior running mate Tej Stewart back from injury before season’s end as the Trojans look to make it back-to-back trips to the Barre Auditorium. Stewart is just 50 points away from 1,000 for his career.
“We continue to keep our fingers crossed on Tej and hope to get some good news in the next week or two. Eli and Omar are both doing a wonderful job getting everyone involved into the flow of the game as we battle through injuries. We have another big week ahead of us with two more road games and hopefully we can continue to grow as a group and finish off games together,” said head coach Kris Bador.
Bador’s talented squad (13-1) kept their No. 2 position in the current Division IV standings behind undefeated West Rutland. Williamstown (12-3), MSJ (12-2) and Twin Valley (12-3) round out the top five. The Trojans traveled to Richford on Tuesday and will stay on the road for a match-up against BFA-Fairfax Thursday.
