Burgos boosts Williamstown
Toolbox
By Anna Grearson TIMES ARGUS STAFF - Published: February 10, 2010
WILLIAMSTOWN – It's hard to beat a good team twice, and having a starter out sick makes it even harder.
Still, the Williamstown boys basketball team figured out a way to complete a regular-season sweep of Twinfield on Tuesday with a 75-61 victory in front of a packed house.
"We got into early foul trouble and we had Nick Gagnon out," Williamstown coach Jack Carrier said. "Guys like Mitchell St. Onge, who had six assists in the first half, really helped us. And Kyle Benway was big off the bench after we got in foul trouble. He ended up with seven points and 10 boards. He's young to the game – he's only a second-year player – so he's working really hard."
Williamstown captured the CVL North regular-season title with Tuesday's victory and remained undefeated versus Vermont teams with one regular-season game left (at Concord on Friday). Ray Burgos led the Blue Devils with 22 points and three assists, Troy Laughlin added 16 points and eight rebounds, Steven Manwaring finished with 11 points and seven rebounds, and Justin Beaudet and St. Onge both tallied nine points.
"The bench was big," Carrier said. "We needed the bench a lot. Justin Beaudet gave us some quality minutes, Kyle Benway, Mitch St. Onge, Logan Clark – it was a real team effort."
Nick Harvey paced the 14-4 Trojans with 23 points. He also grabbed 15 rebounds and swiped four steals.
"Nick's been playing well for us," Twinfield coach Ira Wheeler said. "I still have to get him to go to the hoop a little stronger and get away from those jump shots he likes to take."Chris Link added 21 points and nine rebounds for Twinfield, and teammate Addison Powers tallied seven steals. Fellow Trojan Chad Copeland, limited to seven points, grabbed seven rebounds.
Twinfield never led but tied the game twice early in the first quarter before Williamstown quickly capitalized on a trio of Trojan turnovers and opened a six-point lead at the end of the frame.
Burgos scored his team's first nine points of the second quarter, part of an 11-2 run by the Blue Devils, but Twinfield recovered and matched Williamstown nearly point-for-point for the remaining 5:05 of the first half.
"Burgos had Burgos' game tonight: he attacks hard and draws fouls," Carrier said.
The Trojans scored half their second-quarter points from the foul line but still found themselves down by 15 at the half.
"I think we have a little more depth than they do, so I think that made it a little easier for us to get guys in," Wheeler said. "We had their big guys in foul trouble in the first half, but we couldn't really take advantage of it. Our whole scheme of offense was trying to get the ball down to our big guys, but we didn't really execute as well as we could have."
Williamstown's Laughlin came alive offensively in the third quarter, just as Twinfield's Link did. Laughlin scored six of his 16 in that frame while Link tallied eight.
The Blue Devil lead grew to 20 on a pair of one-and-ones from Johnny Earls, and St. Onge made it 59-34 with a 3-pointer and two more one-and-ones. Twinfield's Spidle cashed in an offensive rebound to close out the quarter with his team facing a 59-37 deficit.
Harvey, Link and a 3-pointer by Avery Whitcomb powered a 13-5 Twinfield run to start the fourth and cut the gap to 15 with 3:36 to play.
"Nick Harvey, what an athlete he is," Carrier said. "Chris Link hit outside shots and drove inside, and Copeland was solid. They're a solid team, and they'll be hard to beat three times in a row. My hats off to them, I love to play those guys. They're friends on and off the court. I wish we had 20 of these."
Manwaring answered in the post briefly before Copeland brought the Trojans within 10 points. But Williamstown responded at the foul line while Copeland and Powers fouled out in the closing 40 seconds.
"We had a nice little comeback toward the end," Wheeler said. "They didn't quit and I'm happy that happened. They could've given up when we were down by 20 points, but they didn't. We can only hope we get better from it."
Williamstown, now 18-1 with its only loss coming against Woodsville, N.H., is hoping to reach the Division IV semifinals for the first time in 24 years. Carrier was part of the last Blue Devil team to reach the Barre Auditorium and came away with a state championship.
"I like the and-one on our record – I like the 18-1 because it shows reality," Carrier said. "We've been beat by a team we should have beat. Woodsville is a solid team, but we didn't play our game and it showed us some glitches we had to work out. And it seems like we're working some of them out. Toward the end of the game we got a little spotty and I got a little nervous. When they're playing well, they're tough to beat. I've waited 24 years to come back to do something like this."
Twinfield hosts Craftsbury for Senior Night on Friday at 7 p.m.
Williamstown 75, Twinfield 61
TWINFIELD (61)
Codling 1 2-4 4, Harvey 8 7-11 23, Link 8 5-6 21, Weinreich 0 0-2 0, Powers 0 0-0 0, Spidle 1 0-0 2, Copeland 2 3-4 7, Robinson 0 1-2 1, Whitcomb 0 1 0-0 3, Holt 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 1 18-29 61.
WILLIAMSTOWN (75)
Burgos 7 2 2-8 22, Earls 1 4-4 6, Laughlin 6 4-8 16, Manwaring 4 3-3 11, Beaudet 2 1 2-2 9, Benway 2 3-4 7, St. Onge 2 1 2-2 9, Clark 0 0-0 0, Scholtz 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 4 20-31 75.
Twinfield 14 8 15 25 – 61
Williamstown 20 17 22 16 – 75
Three-pointers: T – Whitcomb. W – Burgos 2, Beaudet, St. Onge. Fouled out: T – Powers, Copeland. W – Laughlin.
55