THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Quitman High School Athletics

NEWS

RUTLAND LAYS 50-40 UPSET ON U-32

RUTLAND LAYS 50-40 UPSET ON U-32

RUTLAND LAYS 50-40 UPSET ON U-32 February 18, 2015 · by Bradley Smart · After suffering a 17-point loss to U-32 a year ago, the No. 13 Rutland girls basketball team entered Tuesday’s Division I playdown with revenge on its mind. Rutland got what it wanted, taking a lead with five minutes remaining in the first and never squandering it en route to a 50-40 upset over No. 4 U-32. “We hit our shots — that obviously helped,” Rutland coach Nathan Bellomo said. “On defense, we made adjustments. We countered their counters, and playoff basketball is about who executes. And we got the better end of the stick.” Rutland (9-12) turned to the guard duo of Logan Boyles and Lauren Fabian, who took over for stretches at a time to trigger the victory. Fabian, who scored a team-high 12 points, connected on a trio of 3-pointers in the first half to open up a four-point halftime lead. Boyles was big down the stretch, scoring eight of her 11 points in the fourth quarter. “Boyles is really quick and got out and generated offense for us late,” Bellomo said. “That’s kind of who we are. We have players who do what they need to do in the first, and then someone different comes out in the second. We had a team effort tonight.” U-32 (15-5) looked to the paint, where Liz Ksepka found success with a game-high 14 points. But Rutland’s stingy defense eventually closed down that opportunity while limiting U-32 to a single 3-pointer over the course of the game. “We got the ball inside, but once they figured out what our plan was they came in and doubled down on us,” U-32 coach Travis Paquet said. “We weren’t getting any open shots. They did a great job on playing our bigs inside and then getting the ball out in transition.” After a defensively minded first quarter that ended in an 8-8 tie, Fabian guided Rutland to a 10-point lead. The senior guard hit a pair of 3-pointers, including one that forced Paquet to call a timeout with 2:00 remaining in the half. Paquet’s adjustments worked, as U-32 rattled off six quick points to cut the lead to four entering the third. Both teams dueled after the break, swapping baskets as U-32 cut the lead to three going into the fourth. Ksepka scored nine points in the third quarter, while teammate Andrea Symonds had four of her 10 points in the third. Their success was due to an adjustment Paquet made to combat Bellomo’s fronting strategy. Rutland opened the fourth quarter with a 6-0 run and held Ksepka scoreless. U-32’s Liz Aitchison finally got on the board, hitting 4 of 4 free-throw attempts. But it was too little, too late for U-32 as Boyles and Rutland built a double-digit lead and sustained it. “Not a whole lot changed,” Bellomo said of the year between his team’s last meeting with U-32. “We executed and hit some shots and got some confidence. We rolled after that.” Jessica Mugford added five points for U-32, which is slated to move back down to D-II in the 2015-16 campaign. It could be a welcome return for Paquet, whose team was a 8-0 against D-II opponents this winter. “We’ll have three starters returning, plus Andrea (Symonds) has been big off the bench for us.” Paquet said. “Going back to D-II will be really good.” Rutland will look to extend its season against the winner of No. 5 Rice (14-6) and No. 12 Colchester (8-12) on Saturday on the road at 2 p.m. Rutland downed Colchester, 52-42, in December but was swept in two meetings with Rice. “We’ve faced both,” Bellomo said. “At this point, we’re 1-0 in the postseason and we’ll take whoever we get. We have an idea of both, and we’ll get prepared for whoever wins.” Rice will host Colchester at 7 p.m. today.

PRIVACY POLICY (opens in a new tab) | © 2024 MASCOT MEDIA, LLC