WESTMINSTER, Vt. – After leading by just three points at the half, the visiting Fall Mountain Wildcats opened the third quarter on a 10-0 run on their way to a stifling second half, beating the Terriers 48-36.
Bellows Falls was held to just four points in the third quarter after trailing 24-21 going into the frame.
“We didn’t shoot well, couldn’t penetrate… a lot of things offensively didn’t go well,” said BF head coach Ryan Stoodley. “When we got our shots, we just didn’t make them.”
While BF was struggling in the second half, the Wildcats’ offense was thriving. In the third where they outscored BF 13-4, Joey Murdoch poured in three hoops to take some of the offensive slack off Owen Marandino (13 first-half points).
“Second half we came out even stronger [than the first half],” said FM head coach Justin Cassarino. “We had active hands and were deflecting everything.” Cassarino added, “Every guy stepped up and did their job. Owen and Joey did what they do every game, but Eli Gould stepped up big for us in the fourth quarter.”
Gould added six points in the final frame to help hold off the Terriers. This marks the second straight win for the Wildcats after losing four in a row, as they beat Stevens the previous night in Claremont.
“I’m very proud of how we have turned this team around,” said Cassarino. “After a four game losing streak, this team has fought back and worked even harder. These were two big wins for us this week. I was nervous heading into this game because of how high our energy was in last night’s game, but they picked up right where we left off. Our strong defense led to great offense.”
Before the lopsided second half, the Terriers were playing right up to speed with FM. A three pointer from BF’s Jackson Goodell at the end of the first quarter had BF down 14-11. And in the second quarter, there were six lead changes as the teams from across the state border were trading bucket for bucket.
On what went wrong in the second half compared to the first, coach Stoodley said, “In the second half we got a little unfocused and we didn’t execute. We gave them some easy shots and they made them count. We’ll get back after it in practice.”
For the Wildcats, Marandino had a game-high 17 points, Murdoch added 13, and Gould chipped in with 9. The Terriers’ scoring was led by Ryan Kelly’s 9 points and Dylan Clark’s 8.
While Fall Mountain improves to 8-5 after the win, Bellows Fall drops to 4-7, having been losers in six of their last seven games.
Both teams are back in action at home Tuesday night. Bellows Falls will host Hartford while FM will entertain Monadnock.
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