After Terrible Start, Hornets Have Won 3
By Laurie-Jean B. Gauthier

Whitcomb's Matt Durfee (#5) scrambles for the ball against UCA's # 21, Wong-Mo Kang. (Herald / Joyce Hunt) 1Sandy 1

The only thing worse than a 1-19 season was a 0-20 season, and mid-January first year Whitcomb boys’ basketball coach Bob Cushman was beginning to wonder if that just might be his legacy.

With a 0-10 season record entering a home game against the Craftsbury Charger on Friday, Jan. 18, the Hornets had yet to win. All changed at the buzzer, when Whitcomb posted their first victory of the season, and Cuscha and his Hornets would finish the season at least no better and no worse off than last year.

Then one week later, on Friday, Jan. 25, Cushman guided his charges to their second victory, beating the Cabot Huskies on their turf, and the Hornets had bested last year’s record. "Good things come in threes." And on Saturday, Feb. 2, the Hornets claimed their third straight victory for Cushman, on the road in Newport against the United Christian Academy Crusaders.

In that contest, UCA held a 22-21 lead at the break, before the Hornets took over and doubled-up on the Crusaders with 16 points, while limiting UCA to eight points for a 37-30 edge entering the final quarter. Both teams matched points at 16 each to finish the game, but at the whistle it was 53-46. Hornet Deven Hill finished with 18 points and Damian Russo was game-high with 22 points which included four 3-pointers.

Loss to Websterville

Eighth grader Andrew Schuman and junior Isaac Ransom were the Warriors that the Hornets needed to stop if they wanted to beat their Webesterville Baptist Christian School guests to avenge their earlier loss. They were, unfortunately, unable to do so, as Schuman deposited a team-high 19 points, followed by Ransom with 17, in the 57-40 second win, for a season sweep over the Hornets.

Whitcomb’s Russo treyed, and WBCS’s Chas Burbank matched the three-pointer for the tie at the start of the contest, then a Russo hoop and Schuman match retied the score for a second time, less than a minute into the game. Action continued fast and furious, until Durfee and Russo both deposited baskets to end the period with the Warriors up 15-14. Russo and Hill gave the Hornets a short-lived lead. At the top of the third period Ransom and Russo dueled for scoring bragging rights, with Russo scoring six and the WBC star five. Russo added one last basket for all eight of the Hornets’ third quarter points, but Websterville’s lead was nine, widening to the final 17-points spread at the final buzzer.

Tyler Killian did a super job man-to-man on Isaac Ransom during the first period, and limited the leading Warrior scorer to a single 3-point deposit. Ben Cayer, Joel Wright, Matt Prucha and Dan Noel all came off the bench for Whitcomb, and provided breathing time for the starting line in the outing. Russo led all scorers with 23 points, and had four 3-pointers for the second consecutive outing.

Whitcomb travels to South Ryegate Tuesday, Feb. 12 to face the BMU Bucks, and are at home tomorrow night against the Chelsea Red Devils on "Senior Night." Whitcomb will lose Matt Durfee, Deven Hill, Jacob Hunt and Tyler Killian to graduation. Junior foreign exchange student Clemens Garve will return home to Germany at the end of the school year. Game time is 7 p.m.

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