Rutland Herald - BARRE — The Twin Valley Wildcats put themselves in position to win the first boys basketball state title in school history with an impressive 61-46 victory over No. 4 Chelsea in Monday night’s Division IV semifinal at the Barre Auditorium. The dagger was consecutive 3-pointers by Colin Lozito and Dal Nesbitt that swelled the lead to 51-33 late in the third quarter. Lozito led the Wildcats with 21 points and ran the attack proficiently, distributing the ball to all the right places. Nesbitt followed with 11 points. But just as important was the lift DJ Lazelle gave Twin Valley from off the bench. His entrance was hastened after Sam Molner picked up two early fouls. Lazelle, a 6-foot-3 sophomore, gave the Wildcats plenty of punch inside. He finished with eight points and five rebounds. “We didn’t expect that from No. 25,” Chelsea coach Mike McCullough said of Lazelle. “We knew they were a good rebounding team but we didn’t know they were that good off the bench.” “DJ came in and really picked us up,” Nesbitt said. Lozito and Nesbitt, a 1,000-point scorer, have been the headliners this year.But Nesbitt pointed out that his team got contributions from others on this night. “Our role players really did well,” he said. Molner scored six points and grabbed six rebounds and Eli Park pulled down six rebounds. Brandon Poulin led the Devils with 11 points. Jakob Ivancik had nine and Wyatt Kay had a very solid game with six points and nine rebounds. Alexander Robinson and Cody Hosmer had six points each for the Red Devils. Twin Valley played some tenacious defense and the Devils also made unforced errors. It all added up to 26 Chelsea turnovers. It all began well enough for the Red Devils, who took a 10-6 lead after free throws by Wyatt Kay. But the Wildcats took a 20-15 lead after Lozito beat the first-quarter buzzer with an off-balance shot from well beyond the 3-point stripe.Twin Valleywas in command the rest of the night. “That was huge,” Nesbitt said of Lozito’s buzzer-beater. “The game was close at that time and that gave us a jump-start for the second quarter.” After the twin 3s gave the Wildcats that 18-point lead, Chelsea did show a lot of fight and got the margin down to 10 points on a 3-pointer by Jakob Ivancik with just over 2:00 left to play. “They made a good run at us,” Nesbitt said of the late surge. Top-seeded Twin Valley takes a 22-1 record into Saturday’s championship game at noon back here at Barre Auditorium.The Devils finish at 20-3. NOTES: McCullough was the team manager for Chelsea in 1974 when the Red Devils went to Patrick Gym and lost to Black River in the Division III state final. U-32 coach Dan Gandin was the Chelsea coach that year. ... Chelsea’s only state title in boys basketball came in 1941 when it beat Plainfield, 29-26, in the Division III championship game. ... Not only has Twin Valley not won a boys state crown, but neither did its forerunner Wilmington High School. ... It has been a special school year for this collection of Twin Valley athletes who gave up one goal all soccer season while winning the D-IV state championship. ... TV’s only loss was to Division III Poultney, which split with the Wildcats. thanks Aimee Reed for sharing!
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 13:38:31 +0000
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