VTC Basketball Wrap Up
By Matthew Hunt

What a night for the Vermont Technical College Knights! At Tuesday evening’s game the Knights fought a long and arduous battle against Paul Smith’s college. It was a back and forth battle throughout the entire game with the Knights trailing until 29-27 at the end of a very intense first half.

Seniors Brian Gillilan and Christopher Taft led the offensive strike in the second half fighting the Knights back and forth during the game. A usual go-to-man for the Knights Jake Clough made his presence known in the paint, once again racking up 10 rebounds and scoring 14 points.

The Knights worked hard at the start of the second half fighting the seemingly overwhelming Paul Smith offense until they trailed by just six points. From out of nowhere Garret Crawford, on a bum ankle, stepped up his game and buried three consecutive three-point shots to take VTC to the tie and then into the lead that the Knights carried within the last four minutes of the game. It was a heart-wrenching game all the way down to the last 40 seconds, when Taft went up to put the Knights ahead by four and was fouled, giving him two easy shots. The big wheels kept on turning and the Knights pulled out a victory with the final score being 75-69. This victory puts the Knights into a spot where they haven’t been in over 10 years with 20 victories on the season.

Watch out for those Knights, they’re on their way to the championships!

Lady Knights

On the other side of the gender, the Lady Knights took it to Paul Smith’s yesterday night putting up 67 points, more than doubling Paul Smith’s final score of 31. Lindsey Oliver put on an amazing performance Tuesday with an outstanding triple double, having 14 rebounds, 12 points, and 11 assists. Oliver was assisted heavily by her teammates Shannon Leland and Amanda Vumbacco. Vumbacco put up 14 points and Shannon Leland astounded the fans putting up 25 points, more than a third of their final showing.

The Lady Knights weren’t only amazing on offense, they put up a defensive stand that held their opponents to a total of only 11 points in the first half.

When the second half started, it was obvious that the Lady Knights had an agenda, running circles around Paul Smith’s and putting up a 20-point lead that they carried for over 10 minutes in the final half. Congratulations to the Lady Knights in their stellar performance.

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