SPRINGFIELD, VERMONT – Six senior Springfield basketball players were recognized before the game in a nearly full Dressel gym on Tuesday as the Cosmos hosted Windsor. The Springfield players were introduced one at a time and they gathered with their families at mid court for their final home basketball game.
Cameron Harbeson, Sumner Jansen, Kyle Monier, Alex Young, JJ LeCouffe and captain Dakota Busey all capped off their high school careers Tuesday night against a very talented Windsor squad. Springfield had just knocked off Hartford last Friday while Windsor entered the contest with a sparkling 15-3 record, tops in Division three.
In typical Windsor fashion, people had barely settled into their seats before the Yellow Jackets were off and running and jumped out to a 6-0 lead. Dakota Busey and Noah Zierfus drilled three pointers to slice the Windsor lead to 9-6 but Seth Balch was in no mood to let Springfield stay in the game as Balch netted 11 first quarter points as Windsor led 18-10 after the first quarter.
“We started out with emotion and cut into their lead but the wheels just came off,” said 3rd year Springfield head coach Michael Ruppel. With Balch raining down hoops from the outside, Windsor’s center Adam Stapleton was gobbling up rebounds for second chance opportunities for Windsor as seven Yellow Jackets had scored by the end of the first half with a lead ballooning up to 34-15. Springfield just wasn’t getting any open looks at the hoop as Austin Rowe’s bucket was the Cosmos lone make from the field in the 2nd quarter.
“We got off to a good start and had good ball movement all night,” said Windsor coach Harry Ladue and added, “I thought we shot the ball pretty well off the screens and I liked what I saw from our depth in the game.” With Springfield’s Brendan Dwinell on the bench with an injury since early in the first quarter, the Windsor speed and press was just too much for the Cosmos as Windsor poured in 24 third quarter points behind Balch’s 11 points and a pair of three pointers from Duncan Frazer.
When Busey netted his ninth point of the final quarter, Ruppel began substituting his seniors one final time as Harbeson fouled out and ovations followed for Jansen, Monier and Busey one last time. The Cosmos end with a 1 and 18 record.
Busey led his Cosmos with 14 points and he was followed in the scoring column by Jansen with seven , Ziefus added six, Monier chipped in with five and Warner, Austin Rowe and LeCouffe all had two points each.
The Yellow Jackets were led by Balch’s 26, and Hunter Grela’s 14 as ten players scored tonight for Windsor.
Windsor (16-3) closes out their regular season at home Friday against Mill River.
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