Chelsea Loses in Quarters
By Mary Childs

The Chelsea Red Devils took the long bus ride to West Rutland to face the third-seeded Golden Horde in boys basketball quarterfinal action on Saturday, March 3. Unfortunately, Chelsea lost, 53-32.

West Rutland opened the scoring with a three-pointer and Chelsea’s Zeb Allen answered with a lay-up. But that was as close as the Red Devils came to the Golden Horde. Throughout the rest of the first half Chelsea was picked apart offensively and defensively. Defensively Chelsea shut down West Rutland threat Greg Hughes, but doubling up Hughes left the post open for lay-ups. Chelsea put up a fight against the West Rutland Horde keeping them within the six to eight point range. Every time Chelsea went on a run or tried to come back, their drive was put to a halt by controversial calls that propelled West Rutland further ahead.

Chelsea did close the gap to two points, 22-20, within the final minutes of the first half. Unfortunately West Rutland slipped in a couple baskets to give them a 26-20 edge at halftime.

In the third quarter both teams played dead even, swapping basket for basket. West Rutland held the six-point lead 34-28 into the final quarter.

For the remainder of the game nothing good seemed to swing Chelsea’s way as West Rutland sank basket after basket. Foul trouble haunted the Red Devils as Allen and Brandon Emery had four fouls each and Jesse Blondin fouled out of the game early in the fourth. As the Golden Horde upped their lead to 12 points, Chelsea began to foul hoping for another chance. By the buzzer West Rutland had finalized their win at 53-32, ending Chelsea’s season.

Allen and Emery were Chelsea’s high scorers with 11 points each and Blondin added eight. The Chelsea boys graduate seven seniors, and ended their season with a 14-8 record.

____________