Gal Ghosts Beat Oxbow
By Jill D. Montgomery

The Randolph girls played a much more intense game Tuesday on the road versus Oxbow. The Gal Ghosts used team rebounding, good passing and fairly even scoring to take the win over the Olympians, 55-49.

Randolph used a 16-0 run in the second period to overcome an 8-0 run by the Olympians, that had Oxbow ahead by five, 15-10. By the end of the run Randolph was holding a 24-15 lead and headed into the halftime break up, 26-17. Five different players scored in the run and Randolph had three steals.

Oxbow cut the gap to five to lead off the third period before Gwen Reis sunk a hoop. Oxbow answered with a hoop and a foul shot, followed by a jumper from Emily Howe. The Olympians further narrowed the difference with a trey to make it a three-point game, 30-27. Sharayah Nonemacher and Shelby Peltier both popped in jumpers, and Howe hit another point from the charity stripe, but Oxbow ended the third with a three-pointer to keep the game close, 35-32, Randolph.

Nonemacher opened the final stanza with a fast break lay-up but the Olympians again cut the gap to three. The Gal Ghosts poured on jumpers from Howe and Peltier and a shot from downtown by Brynn Fabian gave Randolph a 10-point edge. Oxbow added three from the foul line but Peltier sunk a hoop from the outside and turned around and added another from inside.

The Olympians trailed by seven and started playing the foul game with Howe and Fabian hitting five of 10 down the stretch. Oxbow continued to put the pressure on and added three hoops for a three-point game, 52-49 with 10 seconds to go. Reis came through with an insurance hoop and Fabian ended the game with a freebie, giving the Ghosts the six-point victory.

Oxbow opened the game with the first hoop off a steal but Randolph quickly gained a 6-2 lead with two hoops from Howe. Oxbow came back with the beginning of their run, and ended the first quarter ahead, 11-8.

Randolph had 48 rebounds in the game with Reis nabbing 10, Howe and Peltier each had nine and Fabian had eight. Point-wise, Howe led the scoring with 16 points, Peltier added 12, Fabian and Reis had nine each, Nonemacher six, Kelsey Higgins added two and Morgan Stewart one.

Two Oxbow players ended in double figures, #12 Hannah LaRochelle with 18 and #22 Desiree Placey added 10.

Loss to U-32

Coach Alan Stewart decided to mix things up in the U-32 game Saturday and played five players in the first half of each quarter and then threw in another five for the second half of the quarter. This worked to Randolph’s advantage with well-rested players, more energy, and input from some players that don’t usually get that much playing time. Unfortunately the U-32 Raiders still won the game, 56-44.

The game was opened with an exchange of treys between Peltier and U-32. Fabian also matched treys with the Raiders but U-32 held a 15-10 edge by the end of the first period.

The Gal Ghosts did outscore their opponents slightly in the second quarter, 8-7. The Raiders increased their lead to 22-12 before Reis and Peltier got the Ghosts back on track with six points. U-32 led 22-18 at the halftime break.

U-32 added five unanswered points before Arielle Connolly drove in for a hoop, followed by a three-pointer by Fabian. Andrea Chase hit a jumper to cut the gap to three, 28-25, but the Raiders answered with two buckets. The two teams swapped shots for the rest of the third and with a mere .4 seconds left on the clock the Raiders nailed a trey for the 39-32 edge.

U-32 quickly pushed their lead to 10 points at the beginning of the fourth quarter and then both teams fell silent until the 3:34 mark. The Raiders added four more points before Fabian hit yet another shot from downtown. Reis added a hoop off a rebound, but the final two and a half minutes of the game were a mix of the foul game that didn’t work and a rush to get down court to throw up an attempted three-pointer to close the gap.

The Raiders made nine foul shots down the stretch but unfortunately Fabian, Nonemacher and Andrea Chase all fouled out. Both Nonemacher and Chase hit treys before bowing out.

The Raiders scoring was led by #12 Kayla Lee with 11 points and #13 Kristen Cowens with 10. Cowens took 17 foul shots in the fourth quarter and made eight. The head coach of the Raiders is Mark Mooney, who used to be the principal of the Brookfield school.

Peltier and Fabian led the Gal Ghosts’ scoring with nine points apiece, Nonemacher and Reis each had six, Andrea Chase and Howe had five each and Connolly and Ashley Chase each had two points.

J.V. Games

The J.V. girls lost a close game to Oxbow when the Olympians hit a three-pointer in the final seconds to win, 48-46. The high scorers were Emily Beaudin with 14, Heather Suprenant with 10 and Javon Miller with eight.

On the other end of the spectrum, when the J.V. squad faced U-32, they won when Emily Beaudin nailed three foul shots with seven seconds on the clock. Randolph won 35-32. The top scorers were Katie Jickling with eight and Beaudin with seven.

The Gal Ghosts’ record stands at 5-8. They play Montpelier at home tonight, then travel to Lyndon on Saturday, Jan. 27. On Tuesday, Jan. 30, they play Harwood at home.