By Christopher Shaban
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
WINDSOR, Vt. — Yellow Jacket head coach Harry Ladue kicked off his 39th season with masked players on the court and spectators in the stands as Windsor went toe to toe with Division II Fair Haven before eventually falling 56-47 in the season opener for both clubs.
“Whenever you face Harry and Windsor, you better be ready,” said Fair Haven head coach Bob Prenevost. “This was just another great game against them tonight.”
After a bit of sloppiness and nerves from both teams, things settled into normalcy with fans cheering in the stands with the score tied at the half 27-27.
“We played well and had good looks, I thought our intensity was there,” said Ladue after the game.
Slater Junior standout Sawyer Ramey led the way with some fancy ball handling and clutch shooting in the first half while the Jacks closed out the first 16 minutes with a 7-0 run to tie things up on the heals of big board play from Austin Gauld and Travis McAllister that kept the Jacks in the game.
The visitors crashed the boards hard at the start of the second half and began to out rebound the Jacks to open up a 43-34 lead heading into the final quarter thanks to an 11-1 Salter run.
“Windsor really took it to us in the first half in the paint but we started to grab more rebounds in the third quarter and it allowed us to open the floor a bit,” said Prenevost as the Salter lead grew to 11 points.
Windsor managed to slice into the lead with back to back hoops from Maison Fortin and a nifty bucket by McAllister as Windsor went into press mode. With Fair Haven looking to keep the jacks at arms length, Brandon Eastman’s three offensive rebounds and bucket bucket grabbed the momentum away from Windsor to ice the game late.
“We got it done tonight but it wasn’t easy,” said Ramey after the game as he finished with a game high 19 points. “Maison and I have played against each other for 3 years now and it’s always a tough match-up for me.”
Eastman added 10 points for the Slaters while Gauld led Windsor with 14 points.
In junior varsity action, Windsor finished strong down the stretch to win 62-52. The Yellow Jackets’ Corey Lockwood led all scorers with 21 points while Tanner Moody added 13 points. Max Kyhill led Fair Haven with 17 points and Adam Williams ended the night with 10 points.
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