Royals Take Twin Valley
By Nathan McShinsky

The South Royalton boys started the season on December 8, when they went up to Montpelier to take on the Solons. The Royals ended up losing the game as they had a rough third quarter that put them too far behind to make a comeback in the fourth. The final score was 76-55. 

The Royals were led by Cal Wilmot with 12 points and Nick Enright who put up eight, while Darren Slack had his first six varsity points.

Win vs. Northfield

South Royalton hosted Northfield at The Palace for opening night on Tuesday, Dec. 12, and was able to even up their record as they pulled out a messy victory over the Marauders. The game looked ugly on both sides at times but the Royals pulled out a needed victory by 10, 58-48. 

In the first quarter the Royals took a 15-10 lead as the buzzer sounded and was able to extend that lead the rest of the night. There was 5:36 left in the first before SoRo’s Enright put in the first basket. Northfield did have a lead in the first, 9-6 before SoRo went on a 9-1 run to close out the final two minutes of the quarter.

The second quarter saw the Royals keep their five-point edge and take it into the locker room as the quarter was a dead lock with both teams scoring 14 putting the score at 29-24 at the half. This quarter saw Enright take the game into his own hands as he had seven of his game high 17 points. The Royals had stretched the lead to 13, 29-16, with 3:46 left before the Marauders went on their own 8-0 run to end the half.

The third quarter saw the exact same quarter score. The second straight 14-point quarter by both teams put the score at 43-38. Northfield had cut the lead to as little as two, 37-35, with 4:00 left before the Royals finished the quarter on a 6-3 run.

The fourth quarter saw the score mirror that of the first quarter with a 15-10 quarter in favor of the Royals. This game was weird in the sense of scoring as the Royals were very consistent with quarter scores of 15, 14, 14, and 15 while Northfield’s were 10, 14, 14, and 10. The Royals’ Co-Captain Peter Doyle-Braman took the fourth quarter and made it his, scoring eight of his 16 points. This quarter was perhaps the Royals best quarter as they played well the whole quarter instead of in spurts.

SoRo’s senior captains Enright and Doyle-Braman lead the way combining for 33 points while Tyrell Manning added seven of his own.

Win vs. Twin Valley 

The Royals had their second straight home game in The Palace and took full advantage of their small cracker box style gym and jam-packed sidelines with screaming fans as they hosted Twin Valley, Friday, Dec. 15. This was a big D-III game for both sides as whoever came out on top was proving a point to the other D-III teams. The Royals did come out of this rough and verbally active game as the winners, 83-78, and sent Twin Valley back home on a bus for two hours. 

The Royals opened the first, gathering a five-point lead, 20-15. The Royals had built a 16-8 lead in the first five minutes of the game before going scoreless for the next 2:20 and letting the Wildcats mount a mini comeback, 7-4, at the end of the quarter. The captain of the South Royalton team would prove to be a real leader as Enright almost outscored the Wildcats with his 12 points. 

In the second quarter the Royals struggled a bit and got out-scored by four. Going into the half, SoRo’s lead was just one, 36-35. During the second quarter Miles Ellis, the Royals Center, took control of the Royals offense when he scored nine straight points. 

After the half the Royals had their best period of the night offensively, scoring 26, while giving up 19 to the Wildcats. This gave the Royals a fairly cushiony lead of eight, 62-54. In the third Enright and Doyle-Braman combined for 20, 12 and 8, respectively. Both of these seniors were on fire offensively and defensively and kept the Royals on a roll. Twin Valley did have a brief lead 50-48 with 4:00 left in the quarter before SoRo kept them scoreless until 1:16. During that run the Royals scored 10 consecutive points and ended the half on a 12-4 run.

The last quarter was full of excitement and good basketball. SoRo had another 20-plus quarter, finishing with 21 while Twin Valley was able to put up 24. For the most part, the teams went back and forth trading baskets. Twin Valley came close twice before a few game-ending foul shots ended all hopes for a T.V. comeback and sealed the deal for SoRo. 

The leaders for the Royals were Enright with 32, Ellis 19, and Doyle-Braman added 18. Twin Valley’s leading scorers were Candon Rusin and Dirk Cionci, who each had 29.

The Royals (2-1) go down to St. Joe’s College for the MVL/CVL Challenge on Tuesday, Dec. 19, and Thursday, Dec. 21, to play Black River and Proctor.

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