By Adam Aucoin
RUTLAND HERALD
BARRE, Vt. — Different players have different leadership styles. West Rutland girls basketball senior Anna Cyr prefers to let her play do the talking.
When the lights were the brightest and the moment was most critical, Cyr came through for the second-seeded Golden Horde, hitting a step back game-winning 3 to secure a 57-56 win against rival No. 1 Proctor in the Division IV state championship game on Saturday at Barre Auditorium.
“I was surprised, but it made me so happy,” Cyr said of the shot.
“She’s kind of a quiet kid. Through her being quiet, she calms everybody down,” said Golden Horde coach Carl Serrani, who won his fourth girls basketball state championship leading Westside.
“When she hit that shot, I couldn’t be any more proud.”
The senior helped secure the win, grabbing a steal on the ensuing Proctor possession as well.
Cyr had a team-high 17 points, 13 of which came in the second half, while grabbing five steals and and five rebounds.
Cyr’s shot was one of eight 3s across both sides in the fourth quarter.
West Rutland went into the final frame clinging to a three-point advantage, but it wasn’t long until a 3 from Proctor tied the score.
Back and forth, the game went. The seesaw went up and down as the Rutland County rivals traded blows.
The lead was traded nine times in the fourth quarter alone and it was different girls stepping up for both sides.
Laci French drained three 3s, Meghan Cole had one and so did Maggie McKearin for Proctor. Cyr banged home two 3s and Kennah Wright-Chapman had one of her own for Westside.
“My kids played their hearts out. It was a great game,” said Phantoms coach Joe McKearin. “(Anna Cyr) hit a big shot. What are you going to do? It was a classic game up here. I’m super proud of them. This doesn’t change how I feel about my team.”
The top-seeded Phantoms gave West Rutland all it had, trying to secure their third straight D-IV championship.
Maggie McKearin was her usual impressive self, scoring a game-high 24 points, along with four rebounds and five steals. She scored Proctor’s first seven points to give the Phantoms an early 7-2 advantage in the first quarter.
West Rutland responded well after the early Phantoms run, outscoring Proctor 14-3 the rest of the way.
A key cog in that turnaround for the Golden Horde was Peyton Guay who had seven of her 15 points in the first.
Guay was showered with numerous, ‘she’s a freshman’ chants, just as she has had all year. Assuming health, Guay should be a lock to hit 1,000 career points as a sophomore next winter.
Basketballs are in girls’ hands at an early age in West Rutland and the next crop is sure to be just as strong, according to Serrani. Guay will lead that charge.
“We’re losing quality seniors, but the juniors and the sophomores and the freshman and even some eighth graders that we’ve got, unbelievable,” Serrani said. “West Rutland basketball is in good shape.”
The two-time defending champion Phantoms responded well after West Rutland’s first-quarter run. After getting heavily outrebounded in the first, Proctor began to even out play on the boards and it paid off.
McKearin, along with some quality minutes from Jenna Davine, helped shrink the West Rutland lead to four heading into the locker room.
West Rutland played well out of the break, opening up its biggest lead of the game, up eight points, midway through the third, but Proctor came with a run of its own to trim the lead to three going into the fourth.
The Phantoms actually outscored their rivals in three of the four quarters, but just didn’t have that extra shot to get over the hump.
Behind McKearin’s 24, French had 12 points, all on 3s. Davine had eight points, while Isabel Greb and Meghan Cole had six apiece.
Outside of Cyr and Guay, Isabel Lanfear and Arianna Coombs both had eight points.
West Rutland flexed its muscles on the boards all game long with Lanfear leading the charge with nine rebounds. Guay, Cyr, Mallory Hogan, Serena Coombs and Arianna Coombs all had five or more boards as well.
It was a next man-up mentality when it came to rebounding. Some of Westside’s bigs were in foul trouble in the second half, but someone always stepped up.
“Isabel Lanfear off the bench gave us a spark in the first quarter,” Serrani said.
It was a bitter pill to swallow for Proctor who had been crowned Division IV champions the last two seasons, but didn’t get to play for either of those titles due to COVID situations.
Proctor finished the season 18-2 and is set to lose McKearin, Cole, French, Katelynn Regula and Traverse triplets, Angel, Dez and Jasmine, to graduation.
West Rutland had its own larger narrative to play for. The Golden Horde looked like a lock to make the state finals last year, but were knocked out in the semifinals in large part to their whole starting five getting taken out by COVID.
The back of their warm-up shirts this year read, ‘FINISH.’ Westside certainly did that Saturday afternoon.
“It was a really good game,” Cyr said. “Especially with everything that happened last year, the opportunity to come back up here for the championship, it’s amazing.”
Cyr and fellows seniors Lanfear, Serena Coombs, Michaela Bania and Taylor Mills will remember that feeling as they move on from the program.
They were all part of the team that finished the job.
adam.aucoin @rutlandherald.com
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