Frost Heaves soar to victory
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By Anna Grearson Staff Writer - Published: December 30, 2007
BARRE – Grab 82 rebounds, take 36 more shots than the opponent, and set a franchise record for points scored and a win is almost certain.
The reigning American Basketball Association champion Vermont Frost Heaves did just that in Saturday's 149-119 win over the Boston Blizzard at the Barre Auditorium for its seventh straight victory.
"When they missed their shots, they usually didn't get the rebound, and when we missed ours, we did," Vermont coach Will Voigt said. Boston tallied just nine offensive rebounds and 38 total to Vermont's 31 offensive and 51 defensive boards. "That was pretty much the difference – 31 offensive rebounds. We had 112 (shots) to their 86. It doesn't matter how much better you are than them, if you give a team 36 more shots, that's going to be hard."
Vermont jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the opening three minutes of play, and Boston never got within three after that.
The Frost Heaves lead ballooned to 18 in the first quarter and closed the first 12 minutes with a 40-26 lead thanks to a combined 33 points from Chris Cayole, Markus Austin, John Bryant, Dokun Akingbade and Issa Konare – all of whom are over 6 feet, 6 inches tall.
"We knew we had a size advantage and I think all of our guys did a great job of really attacking the basket," Voigt said. "Our point guards did a good job of getting the ball inside. Our bigs delivered, and we knew that'd be an advantage coming in."
The Blizzard outscored Vermont 33-31 in the second quarter behind a 14-point effort including four 3-pointers by guard Marcos Echevarria.
"I think that was the layover, and maybe a little rust there," Voigt said of his team's defense coming off the holiday break earlier in the week. "Obviously defensively, that was not what we are capable of. That's a team that beat Manchester, and they've got a couple of good guards. Fortunately, we were pretty good offensively."
Vermont opened up a 99-77 lead with a tip in by Cayole with 4:18 left in the third quarter. Cayole created a 3D opportunity for Vermont two minutes later, stripping a Blizzard player before Erik Nelson cashed in an offensive rebound for a 102-81 lead.
"Sometimes somebody's misfortune is somebody else's fortune, and in this case, Antonio (Burks) had missed practices this week with some travel issues," Voigt said. "Chris got those reps in practice, so he was prepared to come in, and we gave him those minutes, and he did well."
Cayole finished with 19 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals over nearly 25 minutes.
"When he (Voigt) told me I had my chance to come out and prove myself, I really took it upon myself to know what I was doing when I came out," Cayole said. "I knew I had nothing to lose, so I decided to come out as hard as I could and do what I could do."
Vermont took a 109-82 advantage into the final frame, and the lead hovered around 15 for most of the final 12 minutes before pulling away for the 30-point victory.
B.J. Robertson sank two 3-pointers and Cayole added a third in the last 1:30 of the game for the 149-119 final.
Robertson and Cayole, teammates at Saint Michael's College, have made a name for themselves as alley-oop specialists, but the barrage of 3s gave the 1,200 faithful an added show at the end.
"We used to do that in AAU and at St. Mike's," Cayole said of the Robertson-to-Cayole connection. "And we've been working on it a little bit."
The two records were almost for naught as a third record – points allowed – was also in danger of being broken. The 149 total points broke the previous record of 144, set back on Jan. 25 of this year against the Montreal Royal. The 82 rebounds shattered the previous record of 69, which was set against the now-defunct Cape Cod Frenzy on Dec. 16, 2006. The Blizzard's 119 points was two away from tying the Heaves record for points allowed (121 against Cape Cod on Nov. 25, 2006).
Echevarria and Charles Easterling scored 40 and 39 points, respectively, and Easterling grabbed 20 rebounds. Easterling started the season in Manchester as a member of the Millrats, the only team to defeat Vermont this season. Vermont will play at Manchester, which has lost its last four games, this afternoon at Southern New Hampshire University.
"They're going to be absolutely gunning for us," Voigt said of Manchester. "Sometimes a wounded animal is the most dangerous one. We're expecting a real physical game, and we're going to have to play a lot better defensively than we did today."
Vermont, now 13-2, was paced by Akingbade with 24 points and 14 rebounds and Konare with 20 points, 13 rebounds, two blocks and three steals.
Seven other Frost Heaves scored in double figures: Cayole (19 points), Dwayne Lee (15 points), John Bryant (13 points), Terrance Green (11 points), and Nelson, Robertson and Burks added 10 points each. Dwuan Rice handed out eight assists.
Boston also saw 12 points from Roger Roberts and 11 points from Frankie Patton as the Blizzard fell to 5-9.
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