Frost Heaves pound Strong Island Sound
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The Frost Heaves' Kelvin Parker makes a layup in front of Strong Island's Chris Grant during the second quarter of Sunday's playoff game at the Barre Auditorium. The Frost Heaves won, 103-75. Stefan Hard/Times Argus |
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By Anna Grearson Times Argus Staff - Published: March 19, 2007
BARRE – The four-game journey has begun.
The Vermont Frost Heaves validated their No. 1 ranking in the American Basketball Association with a 103-75 victory over the No. 13 Strong Island Sound in the Sweet Sixteen of the ABA playoffs in Barre on Sunday.
The Heaves will host a third-round game at Burlington's Memorial Auditorium Wednesday night, with the Bellingham (Wash.) Slam the likely opponent.
"There's been a lot of firsts in this inaugural season, but I think for us to get back home, get back in front of this crowd, hopefully we gave them a show that they enjoyed," Vermont coach Will Voigt said. "We talked about starting a four-game journey, and this is a pretty good beginning for that."
The start of that journey was a little shaky, but once Vermont's Tyrone Levett sank consecutive three-pointers and Markus Austin added one of his own, the Heaves found their rhythm.
The Frost Heaves worked the ball around and, with an extra pass, found a wide-open Tyrone Barley behind the three-point line for a 21-18 lead heading into the second quarter.
It took Vermont just over three minutes to take the lead for good, this time off the hot hand of Aaron Cook for a 24-22 lead with 9:30 to go in the second.
"We talked about really keeping the game up-tempo, really keeping the pressure on them," Voigt said. "I thought we did do that in the first quarter, but we were struggling from three. The guys did a good job in the second quarter of attacking the rim, and then that opened up three-point land. I thought the guys, really, for four quarters, did a nice job of keeping the intensity level high. We knew that they would probably be a little worn out, but eventually we wore them down."
Antoine Hyman cleaned the glass on both ends and grabbed nine first-half rebounds, exactly the rebounding margin in the opening half, 33-24 in Vermont's favor, as the Heaves opened up 54-34 lead at the half.
"It's the playoffs, so in the playoffs you have to turn your game up another level," Hyman said. "I just played with the mentality to rebound, try to be aggressive. That's my role on the team, so that's what I tried to do to the best of my ability."
Seven of Kevin Mickens' eight first-half points were scored in the post, and four of Hyman's six first-half points came from putbacks.
"I think it's tough for any team to come out of the gate and shoot threes," Voigt said. "And that's what we tried to do and once we started inside and then working out, things flowed from there."
The lead hovered around 25 points for the remainder of the game, ballooning to 36, 99-63, with about two minutes left in the game. At that point the Northfield Savings Bank 110 percent Community All-Star, St. Michael's College women's basketball coach and Randolph native Jen Niebling, added the final four Vermont points.
Strong Island went on an 11-4 run in the last two minutes for the 103-75 final.
Vermont's John Bryant, who has been hampered by a pulled hip flexor, sat out most of the second half, which could have sank any other team that didn't have the depth the Heaves have boasted all season.
"We didn't know how he would be," Voigt said of Bryant. "He tried to gut it out early on but just didn't have it, but Mickens stepped in. It's the way it's been all year – somebody goes down, somebody else steps in – and Mickens was huge. He's a really good finisher, he's very precise at the basket and fortunately we got him the ball in good places and he did a nice job."
Mickens finished with 16 points off 6-of-11 shooting and pulled down four rebounds.
Hyman was the key for Vermont, however, with the big man pulling down 19 rebounds – 13 off the defensive glass – to go with his 12 points off 5-of-5 shooting from the floor and complementing his three blocks.
Levett led all scorers with 23 points – including four three-pointers – and eight rebounds.
All eligible players saw minutes for the Frost Heaves, with all but one scoring.
"That's been the story all year. It's a balanced attack and tonight was no different," Voigt said.
Raphael Edwards made the most noise for the Sound with an 18-point, 12-rebound double-double. Gregory Plummer added 15 points and Brian Woodward finished with 10 points for Strong Island.
Vermont saw the Sound three times in the regular season and took the series 2-1.
"I think the biggest difference was our defense," Voigt. "We really buckled down, especially in that first half. They shot 30 percent for the game. We've really improved in our one-on-one defense, and I think that's the largest difference from the last game."
Strong Island was coming off a 108-97 first-round win at No. 16 Quebec City on Saturday night, while the Frost Heaves enjoyed a first-round bye.
Vermont will tip off at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday, and No. 8 Bellingham should be the opponent after the Slam beat No. 19 Hollywood Fame on Saturday.
The Heaves took the regular-season series against the Slam, 2-0, with 115-104 and 112-107 victories on Feb. 8 and Feb. 10 in Barre.
"We had two very, very tough ones here earlier in the season," Voigt said. "They're an extremely explosive team with a lot of weapons. They like to get up and down the floor. They kind of play a similar style to us. Our one-on-one defense is going to have to be huge. We've really got to contain them offensively and then try as best as we can to run on them."